Cat's Tale
by tyron23
Summary: Same Story but now with formatting at the start
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: Training and Tribulations  
  
"No please daddy nooo! Not the pit I'll be good don' wanna learn this anymore!!! Not the pit!" Screamed the little boy.  
  
He was fairly young only around six years old or so. His black hair was tied into a pigtail and his bangs seemed to frame his beautiful blue gray eyes. His eyes however held terror the likes man was never meant to know. His face was covered in small scratches and bites that looked to have been made from several small animals.  
  
He was currently covered in a dirty off white gi that was ripped and shredded in places. His arms and legs were tied together with fish sausage and several large chunks of raw fish hung from his neck and dangled suggestively in front of his mid torso.  
  
Below him was a dark pit where a constant yowling and screeching could be heard. This was the current source of his fears. Well that and the middle aged man currently holding him above his head.  
  
"Ranma you sound like a GIRL, grow up and be a man!" He shouted at the boy that was supposedly his son.  
  
"No papa please don't. I don't wanna go in the pit again Nooooo!" The boy pleaded again.  
  
"You are going to learn this technique if it kills you boy!" The man yelled. "Now into the pit and don't come out till you've learned it!" He yelled again while tossing the boy into the pit.  
  
Screams and crying were heard for the next four minutes, then total silence broken only by the occasional bird call.  
  
"Wonder if he's got it this time?" The man said to himself as he lounged on a log and sipped at his drink. Training was hard work after all.  
  
In the pit  
  
As soon as he hit the floor of the pit the cats were on him ripping and shredding his clothes and flesh. He screamed it was the same every time, first the darkness then the eyes, the claws and the fangs. After two minutes of pure torture the food finally ran out. The food ran out but the cats were still hungry. There was a nice boy down here. He smelled like food, felt like food, therefore he was food. They were cats he was their food. They began to attack again in earnest. That was when it happened.  
  
This was his thirteenth time in the pit. It was amazing that he managed to survive the first time much less twelve, however as with all things something must give. In this case it was when that big tom decided to have his neck for a snack, his mind broke and all became black, null and void.  
  
Outside the pit  
  
Genma was leaning over the edge of the pit trying to catch a glimpse of his son when suddenly a terrible scream, like a banshee being neutered with a rusty spoon, emanated from the pit followed by a fountain of blood and various cat body parts. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was a decapitated cat scull heading right for him.  
  
When he awoke the field that he'd used was covered in blood and cat body parts. Fly's and other scavengers were abundant picking at the feast that was laid out before them. Genma wondered how long he'd been out. The sun hung low in the sky so he guessed that he'd been out for about five or six hours or so. Silently he congratulated himself on thinking ahead and not trying to train the boy in the city where this sort of thing would have gotten him in trouble. Patting himself on the back for being such a great teacher, as to teach the boy such a powerful technique. He looked around and not seeing any human body parts in the mix deduced that his son had indeed learned the technique and was alive somewhere.  
  
Giving his body a sniff he decided that it would be best if he cleaned up before he went out and tracked down his foolish son. He set off for his small tent by the riverbank whistling a happy tune completely oblivious to the fact that he had indeed killed his son in more ways than he could imagine.  
  
Somewhere far from the pit  
  
Ranma-neko was frightened, he didn't know who he was, where he was, or what he was doing out here, the only thing that he knew was that he was hungry and cold. His tattered bloody gi hung off his frame wafting in the wind like a red ghost. Turning his head to the side he sniffed the air. Smelling something that could be food he turned and padded off in that direction.  
  
Fifteen minutes later he arrived at a small cottage nestled in a grove of trees. To the left side of the house there was a small creek with a bridge accross it. The cabin itself had moss gowing on the shingles and along some of the outside of the structure as well. It looked like the cabin had seen better days but of course all of this was lost on Ranma who didn't really care. What did catch his attention was the smell of fresh meat that was coming from inside. Cautiously looking around he decided that the best way in would be through the open window to the right of the door. Tensing for a second he jumped inside and took a quick scan around the room. Nothing as of yet was setting off his danger senses so he determined that it must be safe. Looking on the table he found exactly what he was looking for a big hunk of raw meat.  
  
Throwing caution to the wind he jumped on the table and began devouring the meal, gulping down large chunks like they were nothing. Once he was finished he began to clean himself. In the middle of removing a scrap of grass from his hair that he noticed that he was not alone in the room.  
  
He spun around faster than lightning and faced the intruder in a low crouch his pigtail sticking straight out. It was an elderly woman in her late seventies early eighties with light gray blond hair with some dark patches. Her face, which must have been quite beautiful in her day, was now wrinkled but still held a natural kindness that was hard to miss. The dress that she was wearing was extremely plain and looked to have been patched several times. As she began to slowly move towards the boy her steps were extremely graceful and completely silent.  
  
Ranma was about to tense up and run but there was somthing about her that was calm and made him instinctively want to trust her. He relaxed somewhat and let her get closer.  
  
When she was about five feet away she got down on her knees and made a perfect lap for sitting in. She patted her lap with her hand while making soft cooing noises to try and get him to come closer.  
  
After his large meal Ranma was feeling quite tired and a nice soft warm lap seemed the perfect thing to take his cares away. After a quick clean up he jumped down from the table and into the lap almost knocking the old woman down. She quickly started petting him as though he were a cat. She was remarkably good at her task as he started softly purring and quickly fell asleep.  
  
After she was assured that he was asleep she placed her hand on his head and softly chanted some strange words in a language long lost. She closed her eyes as her hand started to glow. When she opened her eyes what she saw almost made her want to throw up despite the horrors she'd seen in her long lifetime this young boy had very much 'gone through hell'. Disjointed images, fragments of a life once lived, pain, suffering, and terror. And through all this the cat, the human destroyed with the rest now only fragments of his former self.  
  
The old woman did something that she hadn't done in over a century, she wept. In a soft voice she said to the sleeping boy. "Don't worry young one, grandmother will help you I promise."  
  
She placed the sleeping boy on the floor careful not to disturb him. She cast a sleep spell to ensure that he did not wake up. Carefully she bent over making sure to not disturb him as much as possible and bit him.  
  
Ten years later  
  
A young boy possibly sixteen or seventeen stood next to a pile of stones. Some of the stones had some runes carved into them. His blue green eyes wept silent tears for his grandmother who he loved dearly and had raised him for all of his life. Pushing back an errant lock of blond hair he said one final prayer, bowed and prepared to leave the only place he had ever known in search of something that he didn't even know he needed.  
  
When she was on her deathbed his grandmother told him that he should try to find his parents. Ever since he was young he knew that she wasn't really his grandmother but over time he just stopped caring. He knew she loved him like he was her own grandson and that was all that mattered. He'd found out a while ago that her own children had died and she was the last of her clan.  
  
And so Ranma Shinkara last of the clan Shinkara got on his wagon heading off for Tokyo to search for his parents or other kin.  
  
Tokyo, Nerima ward, Tendo Dojo  
  
"I'm home!" a young girl's voice echoed throughout the house. "Welcome home." The response came from an older woman.  
  
The young girl was perhaps sixteen or seventeen. She had long blue- black hair that was tied into a ponytail with a bow. She wore a school uniform that had definitely seen better days but had been expertly fixed time after time. Her shoes seemed a bit old and had a couple of holes in them. Upon closer inspection the uniform seemed to be a size too small for her growing frame and assets. If one were to guess that the girl came from a poor family that didn't have much money you would win a prize.  
  
Despite appearances the girl wore a happy smile that seemed to radiate joy as she kicked off her shoes and walked towards the kitchen.  
  
"Hello Auntie do you need any help?" She asked.  
  
The older woman who had copper coloured hair turned around and smiled. She was middle aged but seemed to radiate a sensual beauty that defied her years.  
  
"No, Akane I'll be fine, I'm almost done, why don't you go clean up." She said.  
  
"Ok Auntie I will." She said as she skipped off.  
  
As soon as she left the kitchen the older woman's smile disappeared like somebody shaking up an Etch a Sketch. She thought of how her no good husband and the trouble he'd caused this poor family. Her thoughts then turned violent as she remembered walking up to the door only to find that her husband and the girls father had skipped out the day before she got there. That was two weeks ago. When she saw the condition and heard their story of what her husband had done to thier family over the years, her long dormant mothering instincts took over and she started doing her best to put the house in order.  
  
Turning back to the meal she was preparing, it wasn't much to look at. Rice and some vegetables. It wasn't much but between Kasumi's and her jobs they were slowly making some headway and soon the family would be out of debt, however this never should have happened in the first place. A single tear slipped down her cheek. When she found her husband there would be more than hell to pay.  
  
Near the Bank  
  
Nabiki Tendo was walking along with a small smile on her face. In her purse was the last of the payments. It had taken her ten long years but finally it would be over, all of their debts would be cleared up and the Tendo dojo would be back in the black again. All she had to do is get the money to the bank on time and everything would be fine. Nothing could stop her. Well nothing unless you count those five large men with knives and chains that grabbed her and pulled her into the alleyway. She attempted to scream but one of them put his big meaty hand over her mouth and held his knife to her throat.  
  
"Well well well, lookie what we got here boys." The man said looking up and down her body like he was sizing up a piece of meat in the market and deciding on whether to buy it or not.  
  
Now Nabiki was a Tendo, and is common with all Tendo's is the fact that martial arts runs in their veins. She wasn't as good as Akane or Kasumi but she could take any one of these goons in a one on one. The problem was there were five goons to one of her.  
  
+ Maybe they'll just rape me and leave me alone. + She thought.  
  
"Hey boss I'll take her last k?" One of the uglier ones said.  
  
The goons shared a good laugh at that.  
  
"Yeah right you just want her last so you can 'clean up' eh" One of the uglier goons said to his  
  
+ Oh great of all the gangs I had to run into one with a necrophiliac in it. + She thought ruefully.  
  
One of the goons grabbed her purse and began rifling through it.  
  
"Hey boss lookie here." The thug said as he pulled out the money. The boss whistled, then turned his attention back to Nabiki.  
  
"Well then this is surely unusual getting paid by the whore for a fuck." The thugs laughed at this.  
  
"Now you scream and I cut ya, understand." She nodded her head.  
  
He removed his hand from her mouth and tore off her shirt and then her bra. Her pants and panties were next. He roughly grabbed her right breast and squeezed hard. She winced but bit down the scream. As he removed his member she absent-mindedly made a mental note that it was quite small.  
  
+ Oh kami-sama I'm still a virgin, I didn't want it to be like this, Oh please not like this. +  
  
She shut her eyes tight and waited for the pain.  
  
Two blocks away five minutes earlier  
  
After arriving in Tokyo and storing grandmother's stuff in a rental shed, and selling the horse Ranma was walking on the streets of Nerima. His first order of business was to get some currency.  
  
Apparently paying with rubies and gold coins was not the thing to do if you wanted to be subtle. The owner of the storage shed basically gave him the use of the shed for however long he wanted it. Subtle it was not, effective yes, but not subtle.  
  
On his back was his trusty backpack that was loaded down with pretty much everything he needed, clothing, food, basic necessities etc. It was the more dangerous stuff and his money that he kept in his stuff space. For those who aren't familiar with it stuff space consists of a multidimensional fold in the time space continuum where people can store vast quantities of well stuff and have it available at their fingertips in a matter of seconds no matter where they are. (Basically where Akane keeps her mallet and Mousse his weapons)  
  
Current inventory of his stuff space included 10 rubies, 50 gold coins, 30 platinum pieces, several scrolls with various magic spells or techniques on them, his grandmother's spell book, and her medallion. The rest of her stuff was stored in the storage shed. The appropriate wards and spells pretty much ensured that the metal shed was more secure than the average NATO command center.  
  
As he walked along his danger sense started screaming at him. Something was definitely amiss. As he passed by the alleyway he looked in and saw five men and one naked girl. He immediately saw what the men intended to do to the girl and it sent him into a fury. A mate was to be taken willingly and never ever to be forced. This is what grandmother had told him and grandmother never lied to him. Besides the two mates he'd had in his journey here had both been willing and it was a wonderful experience. Nothing would come of it of course but it had been pleasurable nonetheless.  
  
What those men were doing to that girl was nothing short of robbery. Ranma took a sniff of the air. He could almost smell her fear, no wait that wasn't fear that was, that was. Oh boy this would just not do.  
  
In the alley  
  
Nabiki tensed waiting for him to pierce her and take something that she did not give up freely. It was an agonizing moment that seemed to stretch on for a long long time. She suddenly felt the knife fly from her throat and muffled screaming. When she opened her eyes all of her attackers were on the ground unconscious and bleeding. Further inspection of her surroundings noted a young man with blond hair standing in front of her between herself and her would be rapists. He looked well muscled but sleek in his appearance his long blond hair was braided into a warrior's braid that hung halfway down his back. There were some darker patches in his hair that seemed strange but she attributed it to a bad dye job. Letting her eyes wander further down she noticed that he did indeed have a nice butt.  
  
Sensing that the threat that these men posed was over Ranma decided to turn around and get a better look at the girl he rescued. Her brown hair was cut short and seemed to frame her cute face all the better. Her eyes were the deepest brown and he seemed to fall into them. Her body was athletic but not overly muscled. As he was checking her out she was doing the same.  
  
When he turned around her heart jumped into her throat. Growing up she never really had time for boys that was usually her older sister's area of expertise but this person in front of her was just. just. she couldn't find the words or thoughts to express it. Ok she could find the thoughts but that would make this an NC-17 fic.  
  
Ranma was busy checking her over when he noticed that her nipples suddenly stiffen. He then remembered that she was naked and in an alleyway so she was either cold or turned on. A quick sniff of the air told him it was the latter. Putting on a gentle smile he took off his backpack and began rummaging through it. He pulled out a pair of pants and a blue Chinese style shirt and offered them to her.  
  
Her thoughts on the subject of one pigtailed youth were abruptly cut off as he offered her some clothing. Looking down she finally noticed that she was naked. Quickly accepting the offered clothing and putting it on she noticed that the shirt and pants were huge on her smaller frame. Quickly cinching the waist of the pants so they wouldn't fall off as she walked her naughty thoughts came back about what else may be in those pants of his. Such thoughts were cut off by him speaking.  
  
"Are you ok?" He asked concern evident in his voice.  
  
"I. I think so." She replied a bit shaky.  
  
"My name's Ranma." He gave a slight bow as he introduced himself.  
  
"N....Nabiki." She stuttered this time not from the fright. And why was it getting warm all of a sudden.  
  
Ranma turned to her would be attackers and started going through their pockets. It was then that Nabiki finally took notice of their condition. Each one had a bloodstain around their crotch area and a slightly glazed look in their eyes.  
  
"Are Are they?" Nabiki asked fearful that her savior might have just become a murderer.  
  
"Are they dead? No they'll be fine in a couple of hours." He continued to rifle through their pockets taking money or anything else of value.  
  
"I hate people who think that they can just take what doesn't belong to them." He said as he finished with the last thug and walked over to where she was.  
  
"Hey you OK?" He said as he saw that she was starting to turn green.  
  
"Why? Why'd you?" She tried to say.  
  
"Huh? Oh that well you see they were going to take you then KILL you, I'd say they got off quite lucky ne?"  
  
Ok he had a point.  
  
"Let's get out of here ok?" She managed.  
  
As they neared the entrance to the alley she remembered her purse and was going to go back and get it when she felt a strong hand grab her arm. Still a bit jittery from her near rape her martial training took over. She grabbed the offending appendage she twisted down and around using the momentum to throw him into a wall. Well that's what was supposed to happen. What actually happened was that he did go flying however instead of impacting the nice brick wall with his hard as rock head, he managed to twist around and bounce off the wall and onto his feet.  
  
"Not bad you must be really strong, I mean that was some good distance you tossed me." he noted idly.  
  
"Oh my god Ranma are you alright! I'm so so sorry I really didn't mean to throw you."  
  
"No problem no harm no foul, although why you'd want to go back there is beyond me."  
  
"Well I need my purse it kinda has all my money in it." She replied a bit sheepishly.  
  
"Looking for this?" Ranma said as he held out her purse.  
  
She quickly grabbed it and rifled through the contents. Sure enough the money was in there all of it. No wait there was 7 thousand yen extra. She looked up at Ranma who just shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Figured you could use the money more than they could. By the way where are you headed I can walk you there."  
  
"I'm going to the bank." She replied.  
  
"Hey me too could you show me where it is?"  
  
She grabbed his arm and started leading him off to the bank. Truth be told she didn't need to touch him to guide him but she wasn't going to let her logic centers have any say in this discussion. As they entered the bank she took note of how few people there were in there. She got in line with Ranma behind her. She absentmindedly adjusted the shirt so it fit her better. After about three minutes in line she finally got up to the teller. She smiled a bit as she put the money down on the counter. The teller knew her and quickly tallied up the appropriate balance sheet and came up with a sum of zero. She smiled as she handed Nabiki her receipt. Nabiki gave a quick bow and then stepped aside so that Ranma could go up to the counter.  
When he got there he seemed to reach in to his pocket that seemed much deeper than it appeared. When he pulled out his hand he had two gold coins in it. Her eyes bugged out and her jaw dropped.  
  
"I was wondering if I could exchange these for some paper money." Ranma said simply.  
  
Nabiki who had just moved off to the side saw this and her jaw just dropped. Nobody just carried around honest to goodness gold coins anymore.  
  
The teller wasn't doing a good job either of containing her astonishment either. She mumbled something incoherent grabbed the coins and ran off to the back room. When she returned she didn't have the coins but a small stack of bills. It was roughly 100 thousand yen. He thanked her and turned to leave. When he noticed that Nabiki wasn't following him he gently grabbed her arm and led her out of the bank. This time she didn't react and allowed herself to be dragged out of the bank without any fuss. When the sunlight hit her eyes she was rudely shocked back into reality.  
  
"Wh. Where did you get GOLD coins??" She demanded.  
  
"Oh those it was an inheritance from my grandmother. I've got about fifty or sixty more. I really don't want to spend them so much but since I just got here I needed some quick cash." He responded turning to face her.  
  
After she got over the shock of somebody having so much money and not caring about it wore off she glanced up at him and gave him a very predatory look thinking that he wouldn't notice it or if he did he wouldn't know what it meant. Unknown to her he noticed AND knew what it meant and Oh god was it turning him on. It was then that his stomach decided to remind him that he hadn't eaten today.  
  
"Hey Nabiki do you want to go grab something to eat I'm starving." Even though she was up seven thousand yen old habits die hard, i.e. parting with said seven thousand yen or any portion of it without due cause. Seeing her hesitate he decided to unknowingly say her favorite words.  
  
"My treat."  
  
Her face decided to light up and a huge smile the likes of which had not been seen on her face in over ten years decided to make an appearance. Ranma stumbled a bit.  
  
"So where do you recommend? I'm new here and don't know much." Nabiki stopped and thought for a few seconds before snapping her fingers.  
  
"I know the perfect place." As she dragged him off towards the financial district.  
  
As the couple approached the building Ranma noticed the name of the restaurant.  
  
"Ucchan's?" He asked.  
  
"Yeah she's got the best okonomiyaki that I've ever tasted you're going to love it." Nabiki said as she slid open the door.  
  
"Umm what's okonomiyaki?" He asked.  
  
"You've got to be kidding me!" She shot back. "You can't tell me that you've never had it."  
  
"No not that I can remember."  
  
"Ohh then you're in for a treat." She almost giggled before catching herself. Nabiki Tendo does NOT giggle like a little schoolgirl.  
  
Since it was an off-hour the restaurant was fairly deserted. In another half an hour though it would be packed to the rafters with the supper rush crowd. Behind the counter was a girl about his age with long brown hair and brown eyes. She was cute enough. Giving her a quick check over he smiled just to be friendly and sat down. His smile though caused a reaction that he sort of expected. She blushed then began to 'react' to his presence. Yup she was definitely a girl.  
  
"So sugar who's you're friend here?" She directed her question at Nabiki while never taking her eyes off Ranma.  
  
"His name's Ranma." She answered back.  
  
This had the effect of 10 grams of pure caffeine injected directly into her bloodstream.  
  
"RANMA!!!" She yelled while jumping over the counter and attempting to grab the boy in an Amazon glomp (Watching Shampoo perform the technique all the time you eventually pick it up.)  
  
The Amazon glomp however does have a fatal flaw since if you're opponent is fast they can dodge and you fall flat on your face. Case in point.  
  
As she extracted her face from her floor she looked up at him. "Why Ranchan?"  
  
"Umm I'm sorry miss Ucchan is it? I've never seen you before." Ranma was starting to be wierded out a bit. Women throwing themselves at him was not that uncommon since well he was pretty damned sexy if you asked him yourself, but a mistaken identity was something else entirely.  
  
"But. But you're name's Ranma Saotome right?" She looked up.  
  
"Umm no it's Ranma Shinkara." To tell the truth he had no idea if his first name really was Ranma. It was the first thing that came to him when he 'woke up' so it's possible it's his name.  
  
Nabiki watched as Ukyo went from adrenaline high to crash in the span of a microsecond. She knew full well what Ukyo's reaction would be to 'Ranma' and that was part of the reason she brought him here. Dinner and a floor show what more could you ask for in a restaurant.  
  
Ukyo for her part tried to salvage some of her dignity. Well as much dignity as someone can salvage considering she just tried to jump a total stranger. Nabiki was trying her hardest to hold in her laughter at the situation and failing miserably. Once she'd gotten back to the other side of the counter she took a deep cleansing breath and started her pitch.  
  
"Welcome to Ucchan's I'm Ukyo Kuonji what can I get for you today?"  
  
Nabiki for her part tried to remember to breathe. Ranma was having a much better time and only managed to break down a couple of times. Once things calmed down Nabiki explained how she met Ranma and then proceeded to order for the both of them since Ranma had never had okonomiyaki before.  
  
Ukyo smiled. A newbie in her restaurant. Well this was just too good an opportunity to show off and possibly make a lifetime customer. She began working on her super deluxe specials making sure to put just an extra amount of effort into each one. When she was done she flipped one a piece in front of her customers. Ranma was impressed with the dexterity and obvious skill. It was the food itself that had much to be desired. He cautiously took a bite.  
  
"How is it sugar?" Ukyo looked at him expectantly.  
  
"It's really really good, never had anything like this before." It was horrible, but grandmother had taught him tact. He used his speed to finish off the rest of the terrible garbage hopefully before his taste buds were overly assaulted. When he was finished he leaned back and patted his stomach.  
  
"Best one of those that I've ever tasted." And hopefully the last one of those god-awful things as well. How anybody could eat this garbage was beyond him.  
  
Ukyo beamed at this. She was cute but just not his type.  
  
Nabiki on the other hand was savoring hers. It wasn't often that she got to go out. In fact during the last ten years she could probably count all the times she's eaten out on one hand. Well that and the okonomiyaki was damned good.  
  
"So Ranma yen for your thoughts." Nabiki said in between bites.  
  
Ranma waited until she went and was about to take a sip from her glass.  
  
"Well I was thinking that you were thinking about how to get into my pants."  
  
"PPPPFFFTTT" Ukyo was now covered in Mountain Dew and Nabiki spit.  
  
Ranma turned to her with a slightly amused look on his face.  
  
"Just remember Nabiki-chan what I said about taking things that don't belong to you."  
  
Her eyes went wide at this suggestion. While it was true that she planned on trying to get him as a boyfriend and maybe a bit of the old horizontal while she was at it, she never considered just skipping all the way to step c, and here he was just suggesting that they jump in the sack and have a go at 'er. Her head spun around almost planting her lips on his.  
  
He pulled back a bit gave her a smile and a wink then went back to his drink. After a couple of sips he continued. Nabiki was still in shock of course. Here she was all ready to seduce him and use every trick she knew of just to get him into the horizontal mambo with her and it turns out all she had to do was ASK!! 'Oh Ranma how was your day today and by the way do you want to go upstairs and have wild carnal sex?' Of course he was a guy but that type of response was just too straight forward for her to accept at face value. She would of course have to 'test' this theory.  
  
While Nabiki was off in la la land Ranma was talking to Ukyo about possible places to stay while in Nerima as he may be there a while. Ukyo for her part was thinking quite hard. (Oh yeah right she was just trying to think of where she was going to put him. Her room might be a good place)  
  
The thing with Nabiki's brain is that it has been built with multiple redundant safeguards so while the main cognitive functions were off traipsing through pervert's land the redundant systems were working on things like trying to keep up with a conversation. Being automatic systems they were ruled by instinct mostly and therefore when it came time to form some kind of response they of course formed the most logical automatic response a young active teenager with severely repressed hormones could under the circumstances.  
  
"You could stay at my house." She blurted out well before her higher brain functions could come back online.  
  
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble. I'd be willing to pay for a room if you'd like." That did it. Her faculties were given a hard reboot on the word 'pay'.  
  
"Rent would be around 25,000 yen a month and that does not include food." She said.  
  
"Sounds great." Actually he didn't know how that sounded that was around a quarter of his money just for rent, he had no idea Tokyo could be so expensive. Doing a quick calculation in his head he dug out 15,000 yen and handed it to her.  
  
"Umm what?" She asked.  
  
"Well it's 25,000 yen per month right. Well it's not quite the middle of the month so I calculated the daily rent and am currently paying you the amount till the end of the month. Next month I will pay the full 25,000." He said as he gave her a smug smile. Two could play that predator prey game. Guess who was the predator this time.  
  
Nabiki sat there opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water. This time it was Ukyo's turn to laugh her ass off. Ranma handed Ukyo the appropriate amount for the meal and got up to leave. Nabiki was still sitting on her stool dead to the world. Some would say that Nabiki OS is one of the most stable operating systems for brains that exist today. However even the best-built software and hardware can become non functional when it encounters a situation that it was never programmed to deal with. In Nabiki's case one Ranma Shinkara has currently cause two simultaneous crashes in the span of two minutes. Granted the crashes were probably helped along by some certain thugs still lying in an alley. The system operators decided that since two system crashes had taken place in such a short period of time, they decided to take everything but autonomous functions offline temporarily to cold boot the system.  
  
Nabiki OS 4.3 Ram 4 TB Processor Quad Xeon  
  
Cognitive functions [OK] Backup systems [ONLINE] Spatial orientation [FAILURE] Failure? Diagnostics [orange]  
  
As each one of her systems came back online only the spatial orientation systems seemed to be in constant failure. A diagnostics proved that the system was operational however the signals it was sending to the brain and what the brain perceived as reality were completely different. The spatial orientation system kept telling the brain that the body was currently in flight while the brain kept responding that the human body couldn't possibly fly. The result was a conflict. The resolution to this conflict was to open her eyes. Well she was flying. The spatial orientation system blew a raspberry at the brain. The brain refusing to admit defeat started analyzing the relevant data. The conclusion it reached through logical means was that she was being carried by Ranma at high velocities on the rooftops of Nerima towards what looked to be her home. See nice and simple conclusion. The brain did a 'suck it' maneuver in the general direction of the spatial orientation systems. It was then that the spatial orientation systems decided to point out that they were moving at HIGH velocity well above street level and panicking right about now would be a good idea. The brain for once agreed.  
  
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" Nabiki screamed as she latched onto the first available solid structure. In this case it was Ranma's neck.  
  
"Oh I see you're awake now." He said casually not seeming to notice the now terrified girl in his arms. "Just relax we're almost at your house."  
  
Segmentation fault core dump.  
  
By the time they arrived at the gates of the Tendo compound she finally got her brain started up again. She would have to make sure that they threw in some subroutines that would at least allow her to function when Ranma decided to do something unexpected. (As if that would help)  
  
As she opened the gate she smelled her aunt's cooking and she saw her younger sister practicing in the yard in her old gi. Her movements were graceful and full of power. Nabiki smiled at this. Her younger sister was always better at martial arts than she was. Over the years it was this proficiency that helped get their family out of some tough scrapes. While she was nowhere as good as Cologne or Happosai she still ranked up among the top fighters in Nerima, somewhere below Shampoo but above Ukyo. It was this fact that kept her practicing. She needed to be the best. She was disturbed from watching her sister by a low whistle from Ranma.  
  
"Wow she's got some moves." He wasn't lying she was fairly good. Nowhere near him of course but fairly good nonetheless.  
  
"That's my little sister Akane why don't you challenge her to a match?"  
  
"Huh me? Oh no I'd never do that." He replied waving his hands trying to deflect the question.  
  
"Oh and why not afraid she'll make you look bad?"  
  
"No no nothing like that I'm actually afraid of making her look bad."  
  
Nabiki laughed out loud at this. "Pretty full of ourselves aren't we?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
It was the laugh that caught Akane's attention. She looked up from the kata she was performing towards the source. She immediately caught sight of the new person beside her sister. She ran over to them.  
  
"Hey Nabiki who's he?" She asked.  
  
"His name's Ranma, 'Kane and he's going to be staying here for a while." That immediately brought a frown to her face. She like the rest of the sisters had had their fill of freeloaders over the years now her sister brings in some guy off the street for no reason. Nabiki noticed her sister's apparent discomfort.  
  
"Don't worry he's paying rent." This brought her out of some of her funk. "And he's a martial artist." Ok that did it.  
  
"You're a martial artist?" She just had to challenge him. "How about a little match?"  
  
"Uhh no I don't think that'd be a good idea." Wrong.  
  
"I challenge you then! Come on let's fight." Akane has always been a little high strung.  
  
Shrugging his shoulders to remove his pack he gave a little sigh. + Oh well if she wants to fight I'll just have to take it easy on her though. +  
  
The two fighters got into the middle of the yard near the koi pond. Akane took up a loose stance whereas Ranma took up some strange stance neither Akane nor Nabiki had ever seen before. Nabiki got between the fighters and held up her arm.  
  
"Ok rules are Anything goes, no maiming or killing your opponent." She dropped her arm. "Begin."  
  
Akane was about to rush forward and attack before Ranma was ready, however Ranma had different plans as he too rushed forward at speeds that seemed impossible and came to a stop about a meter behind Akane. ETA 1.2 seconds from the start of the fight Akane collapsed on the ground.  
  
Error 2: You should not be seeing this error  
  
Some time later both Akane and Nabiki woke up in the dojo. Nabiki noticing that she was staring up at the ceiling decided to get up and see exactly what was going on. To her left her little sister was also staring at the ceiling with her best 'what the FUCK just happened' expressions. Ranma noticing that the two girls had just woken up decided to check up on them to make sure they were ok.  
  
"Hey Akane was it. I'm really sorry bout that." He started.  
  
"What?" Was the only intelligent reply she could come up with.  
  
"Yeah I really shouldn't have held back that much. I know you are a proud martial artist and all and want to be treated with respect and such." Well it was sort of the truth he was holding back just not as much as he was implying. The only reason he said it was it would really really get under her skin and piss her off.  
  
It's strange how sibling minds work. At the exact same moment they both thought. + He was holding BACK!!! + Unfortunately the Akane OS was nowhere near as stable as her sisters and promptly crashed. Ranma sighed. "Well I guess we should get her to her room. This dojo probably isn't the best place to take a nap."  
  
He picked her up like she weighed nothing at all and Nabiki proceeded to lead him to the house and then up to Akane's room. When he entered her room he thought that he'd entered one of the guest rooms. There was almost nothing in the room. Over in the corner there was a sleeping mat that was unrolled on the floor with a pillow and some covers. By the window there was a plant and on the far wall there was a single poster. The poster was what originally caught his eye, as it was obviously computer generated. On it was Jet Lee and Bruce Lee seemingly going at it with a dragon and a phoenix in the background. Overall it was tasteful and quite a nice piece.  
  
As he placed her on her 'bed' he noticed something. The sheets were quite old. Turning around he happened to look in her closet. In it hung 3 school uniforms that had obviously seen better days, a yellow sundress and a blue t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. That was it. No undergarments whatsoever. + They can't possibly be that poor. + There was definitely something wrong in this house and he would be damned if he wasn't going to figure it out. Following Nabiki back downstairs into the living room he noticed there was nothing in there, it was like they were in the process of moving and the furniture hadn't arrived yet. The only objects in the room were a shoji board and some cushions.  
  
"So Ranma what style do you practice I've got to admit it's pretty good." Nabiki said finally. It was amazing that her curiosity lasted this long.  
  
"Well the style is called the Seven Lucky Gods School of Martial Arts. I'm in the speed school." Of course it was a lie but there was no way he could possibly explain to her his real style.  
  
"Never heard of it before. Do you think you could teach me a few moves?" Ok she was hooked. Anybody that can take down her sister in under two seconds is just damned good. The fact that she would probably get into some grappling with his body was just an added bonus.  
  
"Sorry, you see I kinda made a promise to someone never to teach the school to outsiders." Well that was basically the truth. "But if you want to spar sometime I'd be happy to. I can help you get your speed up if you want."  
  
"My speed? Hey I'll have you know that I'm pretty fast." She felt several slashes of wind whip past her head and then she felt. different. Reaching up to touch her hair she noticed that it was restyled. She had short braids all over the place.  
  
Slowly turning her head she gaped at him.  
  
Trap V: Checksum error  
  
"You sure you don't want speed training?" he said as his hands whipped out again returning her hair to normal.  
  
"gggglllll" Oh real smooth Nabiki.  
  
"I'll take that as a yes then."  
  
It was around this time that a voice was heard from the kitchen.  
  
"Children dinner's ready."  
  
"Coming Auntie." Nabiki said as she got off the ground and headed towards the kitchen area. Ranma of course followed.  
  
As they arrived at the table Ranma noticed that it wasn't really a table at all. It was just a slab of chipboard held up by cinderblocks. Oh yes something had to be done. Taking in the rest of his surroundings he noticed the woman that had called them. She was middle aged but quite beautiful nonetheless. Her copper coloured hair only seemed to accentuate her natural beauty. She was busy setting the table when she looked up and noticed there was an extra person in the room.  
  
"Oh hello there who might you be?" She asked.  
  
"His name's Ranma Shinkara auntie. He's going to be in town for a while and needed a place to stay." Nodoka's smile turned into a frown at that. "He's paying of course." Those few words made everything better and the smile returned.  
  
"Oh how wonderful but Nabiki where is he going to stay?" She asked.  
  
True to form Nabiki froze. She had been so busy trying to figure him out, she completely forgot that they were out of room. Auntie Nodoka was staying in the first guest room, Happosai was in the second guest room and the master bedroom was off limits to everybody. This was when Ranma decided to come to her rescue.  
  
"You know the dojo seems to be unoccupied could I stay there?"  
  
"The dojo of course!" She shouted. Why hadn't she thought of it.  
  
"What are you talking about the dojo for?" Akane said as she came around the corner.  
  
"Just trying to figure out where Ranma can stay. By the way how you feeling sis?"  
  
"I'm fine, I just never thought somebody could move that fast!" She stared at him. Here was a martial artist of some caliber, if she could get him to train her. Little chibi figures of her dancing on Shampoo's corpse flitted through her mind.  
  
Noticing the break in the conversation Nodoka decided that now was as good a time as any to start supper. Ranma looked at the food on the table and instantly felt sick to his stomach. + Uhg they're expecting me to eat that! Gotta be polite but how. + And the light bulb goes on.  
  
"Excuse me for a minute." He said as he ran outside and grabbed his pack then ran back inside. "Almost forgot there for a second." He started rummaging through his pack and eventually pulled out a large slab of dried meat. "I'm just paying rent, I'm not paying for food."  
  
"Oh don't be silly, sure it isn't much but as long as you're staying here you are welcome to it." Nodoka chided him. "Now put that away I'm sure you'd much rather have some fresh rice and vegetables than that old dried out hunk of meat."  
  
"Ahh." His response however was cut of by the clarion cry of "What a haul, What a haul!" It was then that his danger sense decided to go off. Klaxons rang off inside his head warning him of great danger in the immediate area. A more appropriate response would be 'I sense a great disturbance in the force.'  
  
The ancient master rounded the corner with a large sack slung over his shoulder. It was positively brimming full of panties and bras. Ranma was so shocked by this that he didn't react in time to save his supper. Happosai bounded over the table, snatched the dried meat from his hands and in one gulp, downed the entire thing. Now all his life Ranma has had a bad temper. It was only in the last few years of his grandmother's life that he learned to control it somewhat. It wasn't much of a control as a delay. The pervert would pay, but not now.  
  
In the span of the next thirty seconds the old master devoured half of the rice and vegetables, belched quite loudly and then bounded up to his room. After taking several minutes to come back to himself he took a quick scan around the table and noticed that all of the women were almost in tears.  
  
"What was that?" He finally asked.  
  
They told him. They told him everything the old pervert ever did. Ranma simply nodded at this acting completely calm the entire time. When they were finished he tried to decide what to do. Acting horrified would be a good start.  
  
"That's that's horrible! Why don't you just kick him out, I mean he's not paying or anything!" Excellent.  
  
"We can't. He's the master, even if we ganged up on him he could still beat us with one hand tied behind his back!" Akane cried.  
  
"So he's really that good eh?" The others just nodded. "Ok I'll keep my distance from him then. Thank you for the warning." He got up and shouldered his pack. Giving a big fake yawn he stretched and said.  
  
"Well it's been a long day I think I'll turn in. Good night everyone." He bowed and then left for the dojo. He was in no way tired but he needed to blow off some steam or else.  
  
About four hours later he was lying on the floor starting to drift off to sleep when his danger sense went off. Two minutes later he heard the door to the dojo slide open and the soft padding of feet on the wooden floor. It was the old guy.  
  
"I know you're not asleep." He finally said. "I know what you are, and I know why you're here." There was a soft rustling of cloth and a glint of steel.  
  
"So you're here to kill me. Correct?" Ranma replied.  
  
"That's right." He tensed ready to strike.  
  
A flurry of motion burst into his sight. When it was over Ranma was kneeling about 3 feet away. It was then that Happosai noted two problems. The first problem was that his windpipe was crushed making the act of breathing quite difficult. The second problem was his heart, which was formerly in his chest, was currently in Ranma's mouth. He tried to scream but problem one included the fact that his voice box was crushed so he did the first thing that came naturally. He dropped to the floor dead.  
  
Notes:  
  
Well it's finally done. I got the inspiration for this one and said to hell with it and just started writing. No Ranma is not evil.  
  
e-mail nealharris@otakumail.com  
  
webpage 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Day in the Lifetime  
  
Ten Years Ago Somewhere in the Wilderness  
  
The middle aged man sat beside his fire, it had been two weeks since he'd lost his son during the training accident. During those two weeks he'd searched high and low for his son. He'd come across a cottage on the third day but the old lady there said that she hadn't seen anything suspicious in the past while.  
  
Undaunted he continued the search. If he couldn't find his son then all was lost and he'd never be able to go home again. Sure his son meant a lot to him, without him how would he be able to continue on. Those people who were so desperate to get their daughters engaged would practically give him anything he wanted. Without proof of a son except for an old photograph, people would be more hesitant, and soon the scam wouldn't work.  
  
Today however was one that he'd rather forget. It was today that he'd found his son's gi in the forest some distance from where he'd originally trained him. It was bloodstained and ripped to absolute shreds. Further examination showed that a knife did not make the tears or any type of man made weapon that he knew of. They were claw marks. The surrounding area also provided some clues as to what had happened. There were obvious signs of a struggle as the ground was torn up pretty badly. Bending down he noted that the tracks were that of a large predator, possibly a tiger or some other large cat. (Genma's knowledge of tracks is severely limited basically he can tell human from 'other' and that's basically it.) There were also drag marks indicating that something fairly heavy was dragged off into the bush.  
  
All of the evidence considered he came to the proper conclusion. His son in the Neko state had encountered a tiger. There was a fight and Ranma lost. The tiger killed him and dragged his carcass off to it's lair to be eaten. It was plain as day. Not wanting to tangle with a tiger in it's lair Genma picked up his son's gi and headed back for camp.  
  
Now he had only one minor problem.... Nodoka was going to kill him.  
  
The problem now is that his son was dead. He grieved for a while since he'd gotten somewhat attached to the little spore, but eventually concluded that Ranma's death was his own fault, if he'd only learned the technique like he was supposed to he would be just fine right now. Disposing of the evidence now took priority, however, as Genma watched his son's gi burn in the fire along with the Neko-ken training manual. Since his son disappeared he decided to re-read the manual and discovered that there was an extra page at the front of the book that he never noticed before. The page had the word WARNING in large bold red letters and proceeded to warn the person reading that the training manual was for educational purposes only and that the training caused severe psychological damage to the trainee and was not to be attempted under any circumstances. It also noted that the training had been banned from all respectable schools for over fifty years. As soon as he read this he promptly forgot about it since it obviously didn't apply to him.  
  
Now the problem was what to do? He couldn't go home since Nodoka would have his head on a stake, in less time than it would take him to blink, if she ever found out that he'd lost their son. He sat there watching the fire burn and tried to decide what to do. Slowly a plan formed in his mind. A promise made long ago almost forgotten in the winds of time and much sake. A grin came to his face. It was perfect, his old friend Soun would help him. They went way back to the days of training with the old master, surely his old friend would help him out in his time of need. The only problem was now that his son was dead the schools would never be united and after a while Soun's patience may wear out. A plan was needed. It of course had to be something fool proof since Soun was no pushover. The mighty hampster that was his mind got onto the rusty cobweb filled wheel and started churning out a plan.  
  
Grinning he watched the last remnants of his former son burn in the fire as he went to work breaking camp. He needed to get a move on soon if he was to make it to Tokyo in a few days time. His supplies were running out quickly and he was worried that he'd have to actually go hunting or try selling his son again for something to eat. The prospect of selling his son became less and less the longer he waited.  
  
Finally finished breaking camp he shouldered his pack and set off to the north towards Tokyo and possibly an easy life.  
  
A few hours later his stomach growled quite loudly demanding to be fed. It was about this time that he came across a yati with an older gentleman standing behind it. A younger girl about his son's age stood next to him. She was fairly cute with long brown hair done up in a ribbon and deep brown eyes. Giving the air a quick sniff he noted that the man had quite some skill when it came to preparing the dish. Drooling a bit he made his way to the cart. As he approached he noted that the man seemed to notice him but made no move to intercept.  
  
"Ahh a good day to you sir." He said. It was best to initiate the conversation since he had no money to pay for the food.  
  
"And a good day to you too. How may I help you?" The man was instantly wary. The stranger was obviously a martial artist.  
  
"I was wondering if I could get a couple of those delicious smelling concoctions you've got there." Ok now once they're finished to hit him with the punch line.  
  
Hikaru Kuonji started cooking up two specials, the man was suspicious but he was a customer nonetheless. As soon as he'd finished he served up the food. One of them automatically disappeared down the man's throat before he could get payment.  
  
"Now look here." he started. The man bowed deeply. "Forgive me but my son and I haven't eaten for days."  
  
"You're son eh? I don't see him around here." The elder Kuonji looked around trying to spot the youngster.  
  
"Oh he's just over that hill waiting for me, you see he's kindof shy you see." He dug into his pockets and pulled out a slightly worn picture. "A handsome young lad he is. Now I don't have any money right now but how about I propose something. I see your daughter is quite the young lady, I propose that we get the two of them engaged."  
  
Oh there was definitely something wrong here but for two okonomiyaki even if what he said was hogwash it was a great deal. Letting his fatherly concerns overtake him he decided to accept the deal. Genma quickly drew up the arrangement and said that he and his son were still on their training trip and would be finished in nine years. He gave the elder Kuonji his home address in Juuban and told him that he would be there. As he walked off over the ridge he pulled out the second morsel of food and quickly downed it. He gave a quick chuckle to himself at how easy it was to pull off this scam. During the next few days he decided to take his time and work the scam to it's fullest. He managed to pull it off a total of fifteen times before he got to Tokyo. Each time he addressed it to his wife's place and gave a timeframe of nine years before they could collect his 'son'. If during that time if anybody actually came to collect nobody would be able to find him. It was almost perfect.  
  
Approaching the Nerima ward he made sure to take note of every possible escape route just in case something went wrong. As he made his way to the dojo he noted that it seemed older than he remembered it. Pushing his way through the front gate he walked up to the front door and knocked. A few minutes later a young girl about 10 or 11 years old opened it. He looked down at her and smiled.  
  
"Hello is your father in?" He asked. She smiled back and nodded. He followed her inside as she led him to the living room. In the center of the room there was a disheveled man staring at a shoji board looking absolutely miserable.  
  
"Tendo my old friend!" Genma boomed.  
  
The man looked up and immediately a smile came across his face.  
  
"Saotome my friend, what brings you here?" He responded in kind.  
  
"It's a long story Tendo, mind if I sit and tell you it over a game?"  
  
"Of course Saotome, Kasumi could you bring us some tea?" he shouted.  
  
During the course of the next hour Genma related the tale of his training Ranma up until the cat fist part. That was where the story took off on a wild tangent of where he'd met this wizened old master in the mountains. Needless to say the master immediately saw Ranma's potential and skill and offered to train him. He had protested but the master wouldn't take no for an answer. Genma had decided to challenge the master and had been handily defeated in less than two seconds. Soun's eyebrow rose at this since he knew of Genma's skill. Anybody that good to have defeated him in such a short time was truly a master. Continuing his story he related that the master would train Ranma for ten years. At the end of this time if Genma wished he could return and claim his son.  
  
"Just think of it Tendo, the boy will be trained to mastery by the time he's sixteen, then all we have to do is give him some training in Anything Goes and then we can join the schools!"  
  
"Yes Saotome that's a wonderful idea. Brilliant even."  
  
"Dinner's ready." Called Kasumi from the kitchen.  
  
"Won't you join us for dinner? It just wouldn't be the same without you. It's been such a long time." Commented Soun.  
  
"Yes Tendo I think I will join you."  
  
It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Soun Tendo is in a very vulnerable state right now. His wife Kimiko has just died not two months ago and he is feeling very lonely. The arrival of his oldest and very best friend is a godsend for him. He doesn't realize that this simple friendly act of inviting him to stay will pave several good miles on said road. Needless to say between the two of them the Hell construction workers wouldn't have to do any paving for years.  
  
2 years after his arrival  
  
A ten-year-old Nabiki was looking down at the family's finance sheets and forcing herself to not break into tears. During the last two years after her mother's death things had gone from bad to worse. Daddy hadn't taught any classes since and the red marks on the paper indicated that the expenses were far, far outweighing the remaining money that they had from the life insurance policy. In fact the large red figure on the bottom of the page indicated that it was already too late. The family was broke. Most of their money went to pay for food and her father and his fat assed friend's frequent drinking binges. Getting up from her desk she decided to confront her father and hopefully save the family.  
  
As she walked down the hallway towards the living room she took note that her father and Mr. Saotome were sitting in front of the go board again drinking like there was no tomorrow. She also noted that her father was winning, obviously cheating in plain sight since Mr. Saotome was too inebriated to notice.  
  
"Daddy?" she asked. It took him a while to answer.  
  
"Hmm yes honey?" He looked bleary eyed at her.  
  
"Daddy you have to throw his fat ass out he's." She started pointing at Genma. Well she was ten years old and tact and diplomacy wasn't in her system yet.  
  
"NABIKI!!!" He yelled. "Genma is my friend and a guest and he is to be treated with respect!!! Go to your room and think about this." He pointed to somewhere upstairs.  
  
"But." she started.  
  
"No but's now go!" He shouted again.  
  
"Yes Daddy." She turned around and slowly made her way back to her room.  
  
When she closed her door she jumped onto her bed, buried her head in her pillow and started crying her eyes out. She had been too late, her father was gone replaced by a stranger, a carbon copy of the fat ass himself. Her sisters needed her, she had to be strong for them. Unknown to her during her crying fit her sisters had snuck into her room and were comforting her. When she'd finished crying she explained the situation and exactly how screwed they were. Kasumi understood but Akane was having some trouble understanding. Suddenly her eyes opened wide and a grin plastered all over her face. She dashed from her sister's room and ran down the hall. When she arrived at her father's room she went into her pseudo stealth mode. She opened the door as quietly as she could and crept inside. Her father wasn't in there and the lights were off. Even if her father had been in the room a herd of rabid elephants stampeding through wouldn't have woken him.  
  
She approached his dresser stand and opened the drawer. At the front was her father's official seal. It was the Tendo clan seal passed down from generation to generation. She snatched it up quickly and dashed out the door making sure to put everything back the way she'd found it. As she made her way back to her sister's room she noticed that her Daddy and Mr. Saotome were singing downstairs. It was pretty bad singing. When she got back to Nabiki's room she noticed that Kasumi had successfully calmed her down and was rocking her gently. Akane approached her older sisters and held out the pilfered stamp.  
  
A smile lit up Nabiki's face as a plan came together in her mind. Sure it wasn't perfect but it would at least buy her family some time and hopefully they'd be able to figure out what to do then. She got up and hugged her little sister.  
  
"Oh Akane you're a genius!"  
  
A few days later Nabiki was smiling again. It had taken some doing but she'd managed to convince the bank to mortgage the house. Unfortunately since she was only ten years old she couldn't open her own bank account. (Cruel twist of fate.) The best she could do was use her father's existing account. She knew that this would definitely be a problem since her father could drain it on his drinking binges with him and his fat assed friend. At least the family could pay the power and water bills and eat tonight. One day at a time nobody can defeat a Tendo.  
  
Four years after Genma's arrival  
  
A twelve-year-old Nabiki came running into the house and up the stairs to her room. Inside she flopped down on her bed and started crying again. Those stupid stupid idiots. Where else did they think the money came from? The last two years she'd been able to come up with some moneymaking schemes to help the family. Blackmail, gambling, extortion, and various other schemes to make money. The problem was that grade school children didn't have all that much money to begin with. Sure it was easy getting it from them but the amount only covered the interest and some of the principle. She'd had to use some of the money from the original mortgage to help pay down the amount they owed just to get the interest payments within what she could make in a month. Needless to say the family finances were bleeding red ink faster than a hemorrhaging hemophiliac.  
  
To top off her bad day when she'd gone to the bank to make the payment she'd found that there was only half of what was required for the payment. She'd dreaded what would happen next month when there was no money left but that was next month and she'd think of something, she always did. But now with only half of what was needed the bank would foreclose on their house and they'd be out in the street. Life just wasn't fair.  
  
The past four years had been hard on the Tendo sisters. Kasumi had to become mother, cook, and maid. Nabiki had become their own personal bank. She rationed what money she could and generally kept them in their home and off the street. She had resorted to Yakuza like tactics but if it kept her family safe and sound then that was what had to be done. Akane on the other hand had plunged herself into her martial arts, teaching herself from the family scrolls and from the street fights that she'd gotten into. Whenever she saw a new technique she'd automatically try to incorporate it into her fighting style. Being eleven years old she wasn't allowed into any of the pit fighting competitions and the street fights weren't that profitable. She only used them to upgrade her skills.  
  
What she really used the art for was theft. The family finances were strained to the limits as it was and Daddy and his fat assed friend's bottomless pits caused a great strain when it came to the food budget.  
  
A year ago she'd asked Nabiki for some money to buy some clothes. Nabiki had been suspicious since the normal order of the clothing went from Kasumi to Nabiki to Akane. Akane never got any new clothes and was always second or third hand. Nevertheless Nabiki forked over the money, she loved her sister and all and thought that she deserved something that she could call hers and hers alone.  
  
The next day there was some extra rice and vegetables in the pantry and meat in the refrigerator. Kasumi the kitchen goddess immediately noticed the extras and set about finding out exactly how they'd gotten there. Akane walked into the dining room area and yawned.  
  
"Morning sis." She said sounding quite tired.  
  
"Akane did you hear anybody downstairs last night?" Kasumi asked.  
  
"Mmm? No why?" She knew exactly where this was going.  
  
"That's strange. There's food here but I don't remember buying it." Nabiki chose this moment to come into the kitchen after overhearing that there was extra food.  
  
"What's this about more food than we should have?"  
  
"Well there's extra food here that shouldn't be."  
  
Soun was walking by the kitchen and he called out.  
  
"Genma my friend horrible news."  
  
"What is it Tendo?"  
  
"There is a thief running around in the market yesterday. See here it's in the paper."  
  
"Hmm lets see here, 'Mysterious Black thief raids Market.' Did they catch him?"  
  
"No it says here that he got clean away."  
  
"Oh well none of our concern then. How about a quick game before breakfast."  
  
Back in the kitchen the three girls heard it all. Akane was suppressing a smile. Nabiki and Kasumi were stumped. All of a sudden Nabiki's eyes opened in understanding.  
  
"Pick out something black and sexy eh little sis?" She asked.  
  
"And prepare to do some funky poaching." She finished.  
  
Kasumi looked on horrified. The extra food was stolen, and by her little sister no less!  
  
"Akane I'm very disappointed in you. Don't you know that stealing is wrong." She chastised her in a hushed whisper.  
  
"No Kasumi what's wrong is that we are going to be thrown out of our house unless we get money. If we don't have to buy food then Nabiki will have more to work with and we can pay this month's bills!"  
  
Nabiki smiled and then hugged her little sister. "Thank you Akane, you don't know how much this means to me."  
  
"No problem, just keep us afloat and let Kasumi and me worry about the rest."  
  
Needless to say the bills were paid and there was food on the table.  
  
Two months later  
  
"Thank you Mr. Tendo, Mr. Saotome, we in the merchant's guild thank you and your family for offering to help us. This black thief has been terrorizing us for the past two months now."  
  
"Nonsense it is a martial artist's duty to catch thieves and other trouble makers. We will do our best to make sure that the thief is caught. Won't we Saotome." Never mind the fact that their own martial art was based on thievery.  
  
"Right we will Tendo." The two men clasped their hands in a show of solidarity.  
  
On the streets of Nerima the entire Tendo family and Mr. Saotome were walking towards the market.  
  
"Ok now girls you will form team A and Mr. Saotome and myself will be team B. If you see this thief call for help, don't try to catch him by yourself."  
  
"We won't daddy." That came from Akane. She had a small backpack on. She told her father that it had some snacks and water in it so that she and her sisters would have something to eat. In reality it had her black suit.  
  
When they arrived at the market the two teams split up. The girls ducked into an alleyway and then made their way to the roof of one of the buildings. Akane quickly shed all of her clothing and donned the black suit. If they didn't see their sister get into the suit they would have never known it was her inside. The tight spandex suit covered everything, there was even a visor made of dark plastic that covered her eyes. To further the deception there was a small amount of padding in the groin area.  
  
"That's quite a package little sis. You sure you're not bragging about something?" Nabiki said pointing to the buldge.  
  
"Well if I'm going to deceive I'm going to do it right." She said posing a bit. "Be right back." She jumped off the roof. Nabiki and Kasumi watched her disappear into the shadows.  
  
About twenty minutes later she returned carrying a large bag of rice and some vegetables. She set them down on the roof and pulled off her mask.  
  
"Whew that was fun. Daddy and fat ass never suspected a thing. I snatched this stuff from right under their noses. It was too easy."  
  
"You do know that they're not going to give up don't you."  
  
Akane sighed. "Yeah I know, but don't worry I've got a plan."  
  
"What's your plan Akane?" Kasumi asked.  
  
"Well I was thinking about going to Juuban and Tomboki for a bit to let things cool down here and then rotate so that nobody suspects anything. With any luck I can keep this up for quite some time and never get caught."  
  
"That's a good plan Akane but are you sure that you can keep it up, I mean those wards aren't really close to here." Commented Kasumi as she was going through the vegetables trying to decide what to make for supper tonight.  
  
"Actually sis, that's where you and Nabiki come in." Akane said with a small smile on her face.  
  
"Something tells me that I'm not going to like this." Nabiki said dryly.  
  
"Well normally how I do it is that I steal lots of food and leave it on one of the roofs and then I make several trips to get it all home. If we start raiding other wards I'll need help carrying it all back. You don't have to do anything but carry."  
  
They never did catch the thief but they did have some great sukiyaki that night.  
  
1 year ago  
  
In a dark cave just north of Tokyo it slept. Suddenly the sky opened up and a lightning bolt sped towards the ground. The bolt struck the boulder smashing it in half disintegrating the prayer strips. From deep within the cave evil red eyes glowed with power.  
  
"Fffffreeeeeee!" it cackled.  
  
"Panties!" It shouted to the heavens as it bounded away from the cave.  
  
In Nerima at the Tendo dojo the shrine cracked and fell to the floor. It had been neglected for the past nine years. Only the girls seemed to notice but thought nothing of it.  
  
The next day Nabiki and Akane were walking on their way to school. Kasumi had already left for her job, and their father still hadn't gotten up. It had been this way for the past few months. Ever since Kasumi had graduated she had gotten a job at a strip club in Juuban ward. It brought in quite a bit of money and both Nabiki and Akane had been able to scale back their operations considerably. Unfortunately it didn't pay all the bills so Akane still had to steal quite a bit to keep the household fed. She was by now quite the thief. Once she'd hit puberty she'd had to alter her outfit adding padding all over it to make her seem more masculine. Needless to say all the hard exercise had added to her physique. She was now quite beautiful since most of her baby fat had melted away. Her muscled frame was extremely powerful and agile. She filled out her dress quite well. Her hair had been kept short since she couldn't conceal long hair under her cowl very well.  
  
Nabiki had more curves than her sister. She was only doing menial exercise and sort of keeping up with her martial training. The result was that she had a bit more fat on her and some dangerous curves. Both would be classified as severe 'babes'. The problem with Nabiki was the way she made money. The entire student body feared her because of her ruthless nature. Sufficed to say it made finding a date for Friday night quite difficult. As they approached the gates to Furinkan High Akane's usual idiot was not waiting for her. Instead there was a large crowd of boys facing a podium.  
  
On the podium stood a tall boy dressed in a kendo outfit. He was waving around a wooden sword and shouting out something about a fair goddess. As soon as the two girls walked through the gateway a huge roar went up from the crowd. Unfortunately for them they caught the end of the speech.  
  
". Oh the heaven's weep at her beauty, If thou'st wish to date the fair goddess Akane you must defeat her in combat first, I the great Tatewaki Kuno shall permit no other way."  
  
"Oh crap." This amazingly came from one of the boys in the crowd. As a whole they turned around to see Akane standing by her sister.  
  
The scary thing was that Akane was glowing a faint blue. Her sister took several quick steps to the side before the massacre could start. She had no wish to be in the center of the maelstrom.  
  
As one the boys charged. "Akane date with me!" "Akane my love!" "Akane be mine!" were some of the shouts that emanated from the mob.  
  
Then the screaming began. One after another they boys were thrown about like rag dolls. Some were compacted with punches and kicks that dropped them to the hard cold ground. In about two minutes it was over. Thirty boys were on the ground in various states of consciousness. The only one left standing was Kuno himself.  
  
"Ahh truly they were a boorish lot not fitting of such a tigress such as yourself. Very well then if you manage to defeat me I shall allow you to date with me." Kuno stated making it seem that it was as obvious as day.  
  
Nabiki shook her head. Ever since the start of the semester Kuno had been infatuated with her little sister. The problem was that no matter how many times she gave him the brush off he just wouldn't take the hint. The fool had Akane coloured glasses and refused to notice any of the other girls around him. His only redeeming quality was that he was rich and stupid as a post. That in and of itself had kept her family out of the poorhouse and allowed her to pay off the various loans that she and her family had accumulated over the years. If things kept up they'd be in the black by the end of the year.  
  
"So basically what you're saying is that if you defeat me I date with you and if I defeat you, you date with me." Akane shot back. She was not impressed one bit.  
  
"Ahh the fair Akane Tendo truly your beauty is only outshined by your wisdom. Come let's skip this meaningless dravil and you jump into my arms." Kuno pronounced this by stretching his arms wide expecting her to jump into them and lavish upon him her undying affection. Well she jumped at him at least. Her undying affection was a snap kick to the head that sent him into blissful slumber.  
  
Akane satisfied with her handy work proceeded into the building. Nabiki followed dragging the unconscious Kuno behind her to the nurse's station. Normally it was only Kuno that was out for her sister's affections. She absently wondered what the hoard would do to her sister's psyche now.  
  
She didn't have to wait long to get her answer.  
  
"You know Nabiki that was strangely refreshing." She finally said.  
  
"What you mean you actually enjoyed that?" Nabiki shot back.  
  
"Hey I know it won't do much for my form, I'll have to remember to keep practicing at home but it was fun pounding on those perverts. I kinda hope they get the message though but if not." She trailed off while clenching her fist and cracking her knuckles.  
  
"Alright I'll see you after school then." Nabiki said as she got to the nurses station.  
  
"Hey sis if they are out there tomorrow you want to start up a betting pool to see how long it takes me to trash them?"  
  
"Glad to see you're not taking this seriously little sis."  
  
"Would you have me any other way?" She said as she walked off to her class.  
  
The next day. "Akane date with me!" "Akane be my love!" "Oh Akane let's get it on!" The results were predictable.  
  
Two weeks ago  
  
As the young woman walked down the street she thought she noticed something out of the corner of her eye, she thought she noticed some motion. A white figure dashed into an alleyway ahead of her. The strange thing was that when she got to the alleyway there was nothing there. It didn't matter anyway since after ten years she'd finally been able to track down her no good worthless husband. Hopefully she'd also be able to find her son. Oh how she loved him. It took her a while but eventually she managed to get to the Tendo dojo.  
  
Arriving at the gate she took note that there was nobody home. She let herself in and went to sit on the front step. A couple of hours later two girls approached the house. She got up to greet them. Both were wearing clothing that could better be described as rags. As she approached them she put on a smile while adjusting her package that was slung over her shoulder.  
  
"Hello there." She greeted them. Both girls were immediately wary.  
  
"Umm who are you and what are you doing here." The older one finally said.  
  
"Oh where are my manners, my name is Nodoka Saotome. I'm here because after so long I've finally been able to track down my husband and son."  
  
"Your husband wouldn't happen to be a 'Genma' Saotome would he?" Akane asked.  
  
"Why yes, yes he is. Is he here?" She smiled.  
  
"Yeah him and daddy should be inside." Nabiki said as she opened the door. She mumbled something about a no good fat ass. Fortunately Nodoka didn't seem to hear her.  
  
As soon as they entered the house they noted something was wrong. Where her father and Mr. Saotome usually sat was vacant. Going over to the 'table' she noticed that there was a note on it. Picking up the note she read it aloud.  
  
'Dear girls:  
  
It's been ten years since my good friend Genma arrived at our household. It has recently come to our attention that his son Ranma should be trained by now. We have gone off on a training mission of our own to retrieve his son. We may be gone for several months so I expect you to be good and not to disturb the master. It is my sincerest wish that as soon as we return the two schools will be united. Oh joyous day.  
  
All my love  
  
Soun Tendo'  
  
As soon as she was finished Nabiki broke down into tears. It had been quite some time since she'd last allowed herself to cry. She felt that she was overdue. Mrs. Saotome noticed this and started rocking the girl back and forth while trying to calm her.  
  
When she had calmed down enough she related the entire story to Mrs. Saotome everything that had happened over the years. Slowly but surely during the story Nodoka's battle aura came to life. Near the end it had progressed into a raging inferno.  
  
"HE DID WHAT!!!!!!!!!" She yelled. People several prefectures over noticed that their animals started acting weird all of a sudden as if expecting the rapture. Animals are just smart that way.  
  
Allowing Mrs. Saotome to calm down a bit Nabiki was preparing to drop the largest piece of information that she'd ever had.  
  
"Mrs. Saotome I know this is not what you want to hear but." She started then trailed off.  
  
"Where is my son?" She asked, finally noticing that her son was absent.  
  
"Over the years my sisters and I have noticed that Mr. Saotome's story of where his son was has been, shall we say inconsistent. I'm sorry Mrs. Saotome but I believe that your son is dead."  
  
Nodoka's world broke. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Murder starts with M  
  
Oh god it was horrible, it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever eaten. He wanted to spit it up but instead he reflexively swallowed. He instantly regretted it. He looked down at the corpse and noted that blood was pooling on the hardwood floor. Not believing that his new family would believe that the old fart died of natural causes, he picked up the carcass and scurried around the back of the dojo making sure that he was not in sight of the house at all times and kept to the shadows. He took off his shirt and wrapped the old fart up in it to minimize the amount of blood that seeped out onto the grass. He then stealthily crept back to the dojo.  
  
It was a good thing that the varnish on the floor was still intact or else this would have been more difficult. It was rather surprising considering the fact that the family itself was quite poor. He just surmised that the reason was that the dojo was important and that their father would insist that it be kept up at the expense of all else. Shrugging this off he started rummaging around in his stuff space and pulled out his grandmother's spell book. Unlike his grandmother Ranma could never remember the correct words for the spells so he had to constantly refer to the spell book. Quickly chanting the correct words, there was a brief flash of crimson light, and the blood disappeared. Putting the spell book away he crept back outside.  
  
Creeping over towards the fence he noticed that somebody was coming in the front gate. Quickly scooping up his cargo he jumped over the back fence and took off running.  
  
Kasumi Tendo had just gotten back from her second job as an exotic dancer. It had been a long day today. First her job as a waitress at the Cat Cafe. It was by far the hardest of her two jobs, that old woman was a slave driver but at least she paid well. Another bonus of working there was the fact that ever so often the old witch would throw out a morsel of martial knowledge. Kasumi prided herself on her abilities as a martial artist.  
  
Ever since Genma had come to their house the three sisters had to throw themselves into their training just to survive. Of the three sisters she was the best martial arts, Akane was second and Nabiki was last. That wasn't to say that Nabiki couldn't take care of herself, but in Nerima just having a black belt was considered bottom of the barrel. Against a normal person or a common thug she could take care of herself but against any of the martial artists like Shampoo or even Ukyo she'd get creamed.  
  
Akane was a different story, she was technically better than Ukyo but her skills were mainly geared towards stealth and evasion, because of her little sisters, umm... other activities. That was one of the reasons that she and Mrs. Saotome were working so hard was so that Akane wouldn't have to steal anymore.  
  
As for herself she was close to Shampoo's level of skill. Of course close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades. She could only win against Shampoo one out of every ten times and that was only sometimes by pure luck. Of course knowing some special techniques didn't hurt either. Some of the ones she knew were the Katchu Tenshin Amagouriken, a speed healing technique and some rudimentary ki knowledge that allowed her to boost her speed, agility and strength.  
  
Even though the job at the cafe paid well it still wasn't enough to support the household with three totatly non commitant members so she was forced to take another job as a dancer at a local strip club. The manager was extremely nice and the club had a very strict "No touching " policy. Some of the customers who had tried to violate the rule and cop a feel had less to fear from the bouncer than they did from the dancer herself. Seeing a girl with writhing red flames coating her body was enough to make even the bravest of perverts take a second thought before trying to take a freebie. That wasn't to say that they didn't find other ways of getting off. She shook her head as she remembered that one pervert who kept insisting that she do high kicks and roundhouses in his area. Oh well at least he paid well. She entered the house and kicked off her shoes and went up to her room.  
  
Her room, Nabiki's room, Akane's room. They were all the same except for the clothes and the single poster on the far wall. Her poster was that of a small kitten looking very cute with a large cheetah behind it. Kasumi thought it was ironic when she bought it that this one poster summed up her personality in a nutshell, all cute and cuddly on the outside but vicious when she needed to be. She sighed as she stripped off her clothes and crawled into bed. She'd have a bath tomorrow morning but for now sleep was the higher priority. She had to be up tomorrow at 8 am to get to her waitress job. As she drifted off to sleep she couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was a slight difference in the aural pattern of the house. Deciding that it was of no consequence she promptly rolled over and went to sleep.  
  
Juuban ward, some park  
  
It had taken some time to get from Nerima to Juuban but that was because he was actually trying to be extra stealthy. It just wouldn't do to get caught with the body of an old pervert under his arm. He was guessing that the local police wouldn't believe that he was just taking 'grandpa' out for a walk. Along the way he had to dodge several patrols but of course all they ever noticed was a slight breeze as he passed by.  
  
When he arrived at the park he made note to keep to the shadows and headed to a clump of trees near the koi pond. Quickly checking to make sure that there was nobody around his area he stashed the body in a small hollow. Taking off the old man's clothing he noticed several items that had fallen on the ground. Taking a quick survey of the items he noted that only a couple of them would be dangerous to the general public. Magical items were usually like that, kinda like leaving a gun where children play.  
  
When he was sure that he had everything ready he strained his senses to the maximum trying to detect anything out of the ordinary. Of course there was nobody in the park at this time of night but of course it was always better to be safe than Bubba's buttery corn hole in jail. Tensing for a second he exploded running full speed towards the koi pond. Around three meters from the edge of the pond he tossed the old man's body into the air and jumped up after it.  
  
"Wind cutter." He whispered as his hands flashed out in a criss cross pattern. The old man's body exploded in a shower of bits no bigger than a dime. Without looking back he sped towards the cover of darkness, where the rest of his stuff was stored, as the bits and pieces rained down on the koi pond. By tomorrow morning there should be no evidence left, and whatever was left would only be dime sized or smaller. Even if under the rare chance that someone identified the remains as human the chance of them identifing the corpse let alone connecting him to the murder was so small that the chance of him ever getting caught was virtually nil.  
  
"Perfect crime." He whispered to himself as he went about retrieving his belongings. He tossed the items that Happosai was carrying with him into his stuff space. He just hoped that the old man didn't have anything dangerous in his stuff space. If he did have anything hopefully it wasn't too dangerous as it may come out at some later point in time. Praying that nothing more dangerous than a simple light torch would be unleashed he made sure to hide the blood stains on the grass with some dead leaves. Satisfied with his work he took off at top speed out of the park towards a more secluded area.  
  
Arriving at a more run down area, he found a large oil drum that had at one time been used by some homeless people as a fire pit. Quickly stripping off all his clothing he tossed them into the barrel along with Happosai's shredded clothing. Using a little bit of ki he lit up the clothing and watched it burn. When he was satisfied that they were basically burned beyond recognition, he changed then set off for his new home, intent on making sure that no evidence was left. What's the use of killing somebody if you're just going to get caught?  
  
Since he was no longer burdened by an old dead man he was able to really cut loose with the speed. Making it back to the dojo in record time he slowed down a touch and jumped into a shadow and changed back.  
  
Extending all of his senses again he made sure that everybody was still sleeping, however that could change at any time since it was now only a couple of hours till sunrise and he didn't know the habits of the people that he now lived with.  
  
Quickly jumping over the wall and rolling into the shadows ensured that he stayed concealed. He silently thanked his good night vision and sense of smell as he made his way over to the corner where he'd left the body. Sure enough there was a small patch of blood on the grass. Even though it was small any red blood on green grass would stick out like a sore thumb.  
  
Creeping over to the garden shed he silently thanked the kami that somebody forgot to put the bucket away after they used it. Gliding over to the koi pond he filled the bucket, noting absently that there were no koi in the pond. Going back to the bloodstain he poured the water gently over the grass being careful not to mat it down too badly. He did this several times until he was satisfied that the blood had mostly all been washed away. He put the bucket back in more or less the same spot that he found it in he crept back to the dojo.  
  
Just as a precaution he decided that smelling like pond would be infinitely better than smelling like a dead old man so he carefully slipped into the pond and quickly scrubbed anything that might have blood on it. Since using soap in pond water would only be cleaning the water he decided that a proper bath would have to wait for later. He hoped that he could bluff his new family long enough to clean up properly  
  
Seeing the sun start to creep slowly over the horizon he decided that sleep now would be counter productive so he crept back into the dojo and dug out a fresh outfit from his pack. Quickly putting it on he rushed out of the dojo and jumped over the front wall and headed towards the market area.  
  
About an hour later he arrived back at the house. Still nobody had woken up. His new family would most probably be hungry since the old pervert ate most of their food last night. Originally Ranma had felt bad about killing the old man, but the more he thought about it the more he realized that the old man had wanted to kill him so it was ok. Of course his new family may not see it that way so he'd come up with a story that was quite believable given what he knew of the old man and his habits.  
  
He pulled out his precious cargo two fair sized salmon. Oh gods did he love salmon. He quickly went to work cleaning the fish taking special care to keep the innards, bones and heads in a separate container. Sighing he noted that they would probably want rice or something and they wouldn't eat the salmon raw like he would.  
  
One whole salmon quickly became a large plate of raw salmon slices. He put this into the fridge to keep it cold. Next he sliced up the other salmon and set it aside. He grabbed all the bones etc from the container and set to work filling a pot with water. Once this was done he put the parts into the pot and then set it on the stove. Grabbing another pot he started making rice.  
  
Just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon he started to grill the salmon filets. It was then that he noticed that somebody was waking up. Well two somebody's to be exact. The first was 'Aunt' Nodoka. Why she insisted on being called aunt when he was in no way related to her he had no idea. The second he couldn't place. He went back to his cooking removing the fish parts from the stock and disposing of them. He didn't want to but he knew that that's what they would have done.  
  
As almost everything was finished auntie Saotome came around the corner.  
  
"Good morning Ranma." She said obviously too happy for her own good.  
  
"Good morning Auntie. Could you set the table please breakfast will be ready in a few minutes." He smiled back.  
  
"Breakfast?" She asked.  
  
"Yes you and the girls must be starving since you didn't seem to get much to eat last night, I thought I'd make you all breakfast." He said finishing off everything and putting them into bowls or onto plates.  
  
"I'll be right back I've got to wake up Nabiki and Akane." He said as he bounded over towards the stairs.  
  
"Breakfast?" Nodoka asked again.  
  
As he bounded towards Nabiki's room he noticed something different. He wondered why he didn't notice it before there was another room. This was probably where that other person lived. He knocked on her door. There was a muffled sound, which he took for 'come in' so he did.  
  
On the mat was an older girl about 19 or 20 years old she had long brown hair and brown sleepy eyes. The fact that she was totally naked and only covered by a sheet was a minor bonus. She looked up at him and her eyes became wide as saucers.  
  
"Wake up it's breakfast time." He said cheerily. Just before he exited her room he took a quick scan of it and noticed it was just as bare as Akane's room. He caught site of the poster on the far wall and gave a quick smile. She was a cat person. They would get along well together because so was he.  
  
Next on his list was Akane. Unlike what he thought was her older sister she was still asleep. Oh the ways to wake a person. He decided on the direct approach.  
  
"Hey Akane wake up it's breakfast time." No response. Oh well she asked for it can't blame him he did try.  
  
It's a good thing they don't have koi.  
  
The last person on his hit list was Nabiki. If she were anything like her younger sister it would be hard waking her up. On entering her room however he noticed something was different. Sure it was just as threadbare as her sister's rooms but something seemed amiss. He couldn't put his finger on it so he decided to just let it be and wake her up.  
  
"Nabiki wake up breakfast time." Unlike her younger sister Nabiki did get up.  
  
"Whuzu?" Automatic response.  
  
"Breakfast." He said again.  
  
"ZZZt?"  
  
"Yup now come on."  
  
She staggered out of bed not quite noticing that there was a boy in her room and she wasn't wearing any clothes. Ranma smiled and closed her door just as an angry wet Akane came storming up the stairs in full battle mode.  
  
"What the HELL do you think you're doing!!" She screamed.  
  
"Waking everybody up for breakfast." He replied putting on his best 'I'm innocent' look.  
  
She huffed and then stomped off to the bathroom to get cleaned up.  
  
"Yup that was cold water." He chuckled slightly as he walked back downstairs towards the dining area.  
  
Five minutes later a bleary eyed Nabiki trudged into the dining room and boggled at what she saw. Sure it wasn't a traditional breakfast, far from it but it was food. This is something that she hadn't had in quite some time. She sat down at her usual spot and noticed a nice breakfast being served towards her general area. Something was definitely wrong here.  
  
Two minutes after Nabiki came down Kasumi joined her. She too was unsure of the food. Usually the family only ate one or two meals a day because of their situation. Breakfast was just something unheard of. She sat down in her usual place and was promptly served.  
  
Akane was the last one down and had time to cool down from her 'bath' she was only slightly on the warpath. When she saw the food on the table her anger disappeared and her hunger came forth with a vengeance. Forgetting manners she attacked her food like it would disappear at any time. In the past this was true however recently the danger had passed. Old habits die-hard.  
  
Ranma for his part was attacking his food. It was a controlled fury that seemed like he was in a hurry for something while still seeming like he was polite. For the most part nobody questioned why he was having sashimi for breakfast; they just chocked it up to the fact that he was a bit eccentric. Provided that he made food for them they really couldn't give a damn. During the quick furry between bites Nodoka decided to start the questioning. He told her how he'd met Nabiki and how he was searching for his parents but had no idea where to start. It was quite a story but when it was over Nodoka looked at her watch and gave out a small squeal.  
  
"Oh my god I'm going to be late!!" she yelled as she scurried around trying to get ready for her job. When she was at least semi presentable she dashed out the door. It was this little display that caused the other girls to burst into action as well claiming that they too were going to be late for work/school. After the flurry of activity died down Ranma was the last one sitting at the table.  
  
+ That was weird. Sigh. I guess it's time to get to work then. + He rose from the table and took all of the dishes to the kitchen to be washed later. He then went up the stairs towards Happosai's room. When he opened the door he almost lost his breakfast. The smell was overpowering. He'd been told of the master's perversions for stealing underwear but he never thought it would be this bad. There were piles and piles of ladies undergarments everywhere. Most were clean but some had been plucked right off their owners.  
  
An hour later he'd managed to clean out the room. The underwear he'd temporarily stored in the living room. He'd sorted them into two piles. Clean and dirty. He then set about washing the dirty ones. It was a lot of work but three hours later he had a flag garden in the back yard consisting of drying panties and bras. He then went into the living room and quick sorted the clean ones by size. Using his general knowledge and from what he'd seen of the four women's forms he guesstimated their sizes and put the appropriate piles in their rooms. The remainder he put in the unused master bedroom. Strange that this was the only bedroom that actually had a bed.  
  
He went back to cleaning the guest room he came upon several items. The first was a trunk filled with various objects. Some were magical while others were just childish crap. During his cleaning he managed to come across the old pervert's stash of treasure. It was only about 15 gold coins. A quick calculation later and he came to the conclusion that it was worth quite a sum of money. He'd need every last yen if he planned to pull this off. He quickly pocketed the coins and rushed out of the house towards the bank.  
  
3 hours later  
  
Ranma smiled as he put the finishing touches on his masterpiece. He was right it took every last yen but it had been worth it. His new family would be surprised when they got home. Problem was that he hadn't gotten any sleep in the past day and a half, and to top that off he'd been working pretty hard all day. So it really wasn't his fault that he was attacked from his blind side. It was his greatest nemesis after all and it was using its strongest attack on him.  
  
Warm sunbeam attack.  
  
He really didn't have a chance.  
  
15 minutes later  
  
Nabiki and Akane were coming home from school. It was a normal day except that Akane had blasted through her morning suitors in record time today and both of them seemed to have more energy than they'd had in a long time. It's strange what actually eating good food can do for a young body.  
  
As they opened the door to the yard they immediately noticed that Happosai must have been doing his laundry because there was a massive quantity of clean underwear on the lines. That was the first of their shocks however; the second came when they entered the house. Furniture. Yes there was actual furniture in the house. The living room had two new couches and a brand new entertainment system with a large widescreen tv and game system. Going into the kitchen they noticed that the table had been replaced with an actual table. Used of course but it was a table. The fridge they found stocked with all sorts of foodstuffs as well as the cupboards.  
  
Fearful of the changes the two girls decided to go upstairs and see if the changes extended to the upstairs rooms. Nabiki was first as she opened her door. Compared to her room before she wondered if she'd just stepped into the twilight zone. Sure it wasn't much of a change there was now an actual bed and desk, a couple of plants, and a poster where there wasn't one before. On her bed there was a pile of bra's and panties that looked like they might almost fit her. A quick check of her closet noted two brand new uniforms and various other clothes. Getting a better look at the poster it was Ranma wearing a pair of speedos and a smile.  
  
"Oh my" Akane managed briefly forgetting that she really didn't like Ranma all that much. Nabiki nodded slightly.  
  
"He sure isn't shy is he?" She shook her head.  
  
"I wonder if it's digitally altered?"  
  
"Wanna find out?" Nabiki finally got her voice back.  
  
Now it was Akane's turn to blush.  
  
"Nabiki you pervert!" she hissed.  
  
"How can you think about that?"  
  
"How can you not little sister." Akane was stumped, sure she had boys literally fighting for a date with her but then all boys were perverts weren't they? Ok there was Ryoga but even he had girls hanging off him. Seriously the things Shampoo tried to get him could be considered illegal in many countries.  
  
As she thought about exactly how Ranma was trying to get into her panties (now that she had panties) she failed to notice her big sister sneak out of the room and down the stairs searching out her prey.  
  
She found him on the floor of the tearoom curled up in a warm sunbeam looking like he was enjoying a nice catnap. She quietly crept up until she was within striking distance. When she thought the time was perfect she pounced.  
  
Unfortunately her prey was nowhere to be found and she hit the floor face first with a thud.  
  
"The hell?" She said as she looked around for Ranma. It was like he was there one minute and the next he teleported to somewhere else. When she finally looked up she barely had time to let out a small 'eep' before being knocked to the floor again by Ranma. His face was inches from hers. She could feel his hot breath on her face and his weight pressing down on the rest of her body. It was then that she made the fatal mistake of looking into his eyes.  
  
Now unlike most anime where if two characters of opposite sex look into each others eyes and immediately fall in love and live happily ever after. That didn't happen here but it's a start.  
  
"Well now exactly what were you trying to do Nabiki-chan? Sneak up on me and ravage my poor little body hmm?"  
  
Nabiki was of course flustered but those new subroutines she had installed prevented a total system crash. That was until she felt something hard press up against her inner thigh. Of course as the universe works that was when Akane decided to interrupt.  
  
"What are you doing to my sister you pervert!!!" She screamed and charged. For the first time she summoned her mallet of happiness and Ranma got a nice aerial tour of Nerima.  
  
Several long seconds later Nabiki finally came to her senses. A boy was coming onto her, maybe even coming to like her. Now the evil mercenary lifestyle may be good to keep her family out of the poorhouse but it was hell on dating prospects. As it was all of the boys at school avoided her like the plague and those that didn't were either fat, ugly, or stupid. It was a mix and match. Now her little sister, bless her little lesbian heart, decided that Ranma was a threat and automatically lumped him into the pervert crowd. Needless to say Nabiki was less than thrilled. She decided to 'voice' her opinion of her sister's little idea.  
  
Amazingly enough the mule kick that she launched from her prone position connected and promptly put Akane on her ass. From her position on the floor Akane just looked up at her sister as though she'd grown a new head.  
  
"What the hell did you do that for Akane!" Nabiki yelled. Oh boy was she mad.  
  
"He was going to rape you! What the fuck was I supposed to do let him?" Akane screamed back.  
  
"Akane he would never have done that." Nabiki lowered her voice, "All I had to say was no and he would have gotten off."  
  
"Yeah right, he's a boy they're all the same."  
  
"Oh gods Akane is that what you think. You obviously don't know what he thinks of rape do you? You should have seen what he did to those guys that almost raped me yesterday."  
  
"What did he do? I thought you told us that he just beat them up." Nabiki then proceeded into gruesome details. By the time she was done Akane was a little green.  
  
"And that psycho is living here!"  
  
"Of course I am. And who are you calling a psycho? I just think that they got off easy considering what they were going to do to your sister."  
  
Akane did a nice imitation of teleportation. Ranma stepped out from behind the doorway.  
  
"Sorry did I scare you. Didn't mean to. I thought you were a martial artist or something? Shouldn't you have been able to detect me or something?" He said smiling the whole time.  
  
"You jerk!" She screamed then stomped up to her room. Ranma just chuckled a little.  
  
"If you'll excuse me I've got to go out and take those panties and bra's off the lines now." He walked off outside. Nabiki followed him a few seconds later.  
  
"Don't tell me the old freak actually got you to do his work for him?"  
  
"Oh you mean Happosai? I haven't seen him since last night. No I decided that since I'm paying I should get the second guest room. I had to clean it up. I noticed that none of you girls had any underwear so I took some of the nicer ones and gave them to you girls. The rest I washed and am going to haul them to the local women's shelter or give them away."  
  
Now Nabiki was scared.  
  
"But but but what if the master comes back. He'll be furious we'll all die!"  
  
"If he has a problem with it he can take it up with me. Don't worry I'm more than capable of protecting myself."  
  
Nabiki just gave him a look like he should somehow know better. Her father and the fat ass never stood up to the master and they both had decades of fighting experience between them. If they were too afraid what chance did Ranma have against that kind of evil power? She shook her head. It just wouldn't do to get her new tenant killed because of his own stupidity.  
  
"Well just watch out he's a tricky old fart." She started making mental funeral arrangements.  
  
"I'll be careful, don't worry about me. Now if you'll give me a hand I'd like to get these undergarments to those who need them most."  
  
"Hey why don't we sell them?" Nabiki commented. Ten years of strangling every last drop of blood out of the yen she could get her hands on, had ingrained in her the need to make as much money as she could since they didn't know when they would get more.  
  
"We could do that but think of all those women out there that can't afford bra's. Oh to think of them walking around with absolutely no support!" Swooning like he's aghast of the situation, Ranma puts on quite a show as he rants and raves about it. Near the end Nabiki is doing her level best to keep from hurting herself she's laughing so hard.  
  
"Ok ok you win we'll take them to the women's shelter."  
  
"I knew you'd see it my way." He said as he hefted the large sack of undergarments over his shoulder.  
  
As they walked Nabiki kept wondering to herself what it was about Ranma that just seemed a bit odd. Sure most normal people were afraid of the master, after all he was quite powerful Cologne would only stand up against him if absolutly neccisary. Yet Ranma seemed unafraid. She also wondered where the master was. It was unusual for him to just up and leave for no reason. What if Ranma had actually killed the old man! Was that why he was unafraid? It couldn't be, Ranma wouldn't do that.  
  
Ranma was walking along without much of a care in the world. Sure he was tired as hell because of his late night activities but he did his best to hide it. It was in this state of mind that his brain wasn't functioning at peak efficiency and was therefore prone to make mistakes in judgment that he would normally have never made.  
  
"Ranma did you kill Happosai." Nabiki blurted out sure of the answer.  
  
"No why do you ask?" He responded.  
  
Tired as hell does not always mean stupid.  
  
Of course that left Nabiki the one holding the bag both litteraly and figuritavly. What do you say to someone you just accused of murder?  
  
"So do you have any idea where to start looking for your parents?" she decided that this topic at least would be relatively safe.  
  
"No not really."  
  
"Isn't Ranma Shinkara a good start. Shinkara is not a very common name." she replied.  
  
"Well that's the problem Shinkara was my grandmother's name, she uhh found me when i was really little and i don't really remember much. The first name that popped into my head was Ranma when I woke up for the first time but even then I don't know if that's my name or if it's just something that was made up. For all I know Ranma could be my father's name I just don't know. "  
  
"So you have absolutely no idea where to start, you have no clues, and you don't really care if you do find them. You really are in a pickle aren't you?"  
  
"Yeah it seems like it doesn't it. In all truth I never expected to really find my folks, I mean I've got some means of finding them but the work involved to do that is really more than I think it's worth."  
  
"But if you could don't you think that you'd like to see your parents again I mean even just to tell them that their son is doing fine and is alive? I know that if I could I'd like to see my mother again even just for a little bit." Nabiki said as she hung her head and looked at the ground. she seemed a little sad by this.  
  
"Why not your father as well?"  
  
"My father," She spat out "tourtured his family by not caring and ignoring us for ten long years, personally I couldn't care less if he never comes back. We've gotten along just fine without him so far, we can do just fine without him. Besides with Mrs. Saotome here now we've finally got a mother, well sort of, and I know she does love us."  
  
"I'm happy for you. I don't really know if I want to find my parents though, when grandmother found me I was pretty beat up, if my parents did that I don't know if they deserve to be found."  
  
"I guess I can agree with that, our father never hit us but when the old master came he never did anything to help or protect us either. We were always fearing that he'd come and rape us one night. It never happened of course but just the fear of it... well it was enough."  
  
If Ranma had any misgivings about killing the old freak they pretty much evaporated upon hearing that statement. The old freak needed to die for the good of all people.  
  
As they approached the women's shelter they were greated by one of the workers. Quickly stating their intent they were ushered into a small room where they dropped their loads. The worker thanked them for the generous donation and said that if they ever had anything else to donate that they'd be more than happy to accept it. Nabiki of course was slightly nervous, usually they would have to go to the local hand out centers or steal what they needed, the idea of giving stuff away that could have been sold grated on her nerves. The only thing holding her back was the fact that Ranma had generously bought her family a fortune's worth of stuff. Repaying that kind of kindness would not be easy. Hell it could almost be kind of a dowrey, not that she'd mind much of course.  
  
As they made thier way back to the dojo Nabiki was deep in thought about what tomorrow would be like. Ranma would be going to Furinken with them. She had no doubts that every available girl there would try to snap him up as a boyfriend. Since almost all the available boys were after Akane because of Kuno's proclimation that to date her you had to beat her in combat. Glancing over at Ranma she noticed that he really wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Oh well she could do much much worse.  
  
"Ranma."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Do you have a girlfriend?" She asked hopefully.  
  
"Not really at the moment no."  
  
"Umm can I be your girlfriend?" Now was the time to really turn it on. She sidled up to his side and turned on the puppy dog eyes.  
  
"Uhh I guess so." He replied a little warry. It wasn't like he'd never had a girlfriend but... oh well at least she was cute.  
  
Inside Nabiki was crowing tomorrow at school she'd finally be somewhat popular. Well at least it couldn't hurt to see everybody's faces when she walked in on Ranma's arm. Heh Kuno would have a heart attack. Of course it would hurt her business at school but of course with her sister and Auntie Nodoka working now and no more mortgage to worry about she could afford a little dip in business.  
  
Ranma was trying to figure out what she was thinking, of course he wasn't having very much luck at it. Yes she was good looking, intelligent, and preditory but sometimes one must be the prey in a relationship. Oh well if things didn't work out there were always two other daughters.  
  
When they got to the gates they were greeted by the smell of Nodoka cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It had been quite some time since she was last able to go all out for a full house. Sufficed to say she was extremely happy to finally be able to doing the motherly things that she had been denied of for so long.  
  
When they got into the house they heard her call from the kitchen. "Welcome home you two supper will be ready in a little bit, why don't you two go and clean up a bit?"  
  
After cleaning up they decided to wait in the living room until supper was ready. When they got there they found Akane infront of the TV playing the latest version of Street Fighter vs Gainax 2. She was playing a wimpy Shinji Ikari who was trying his best not to get smashed by an angry Zangief. She'd already won the first match and was very close to winning this one as well. Just as Zangief got close she slammed all of the buttons on the controller and jammed the controller in a seemingly complex left right up digonal pattern. Onscreen Unit 01 appeared and started third impact thereby winning the final match with a super hyper mega finishing combo. She got the special cut scene of the world ending, but oh well at least she won.  
  
"Hey Nabiki this is great! You gotta try this."  
  
"I'm not really one for the fighting games you know that Akane."  
  
"Not a problem we've got tons of other games here as well. Let's see here we've got corporate takeover, missile command, frogger, generic racing game, 300 in one old games that nobody's heard of, and Petz the cat one."  
  
"Uhh let's try frogger."  
  
After a while Kasumi came home and joined in until dinner. It was a great dinner fit for a king. Unfortunately everything was cooked so to Ranma it tasted like crap. After supper everybody retired to their rooms for the night. Tomorrow was of course another day well sort of. Tomorrow was the day that Ranma started school.  
  
God help us all.  
  
Authors Notes  
  
Wow that's done. Finally. Really I mean it. Sorry to all that I haven't written lately but I've got a full time job and the rest of my time I would rather spend doing other things like reading fiction or doing housework so that our house is not a sty. What changed you ask? Well I got a handheld (sony Clie) and a keyboard. I work at an inbound call center and can type inbetween calls. I can now update more frequently than every once per year. Ha ha hahah. Now I can get on with revising Shinji 1/2 and writing demon kind and other crazy ideas that i've got.  
  
any comments/criticism are to be mailed to nealharris@otakumail.com 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Disclaim, disclaim, disklame etc you get the idea  
  
Chapter 4: A Schooling we will go  
  
Morning brought with it light as it usually does. However this morning also brought with it sounds of utter chaos at the Tendo home. Nodoka was getting ready for work while cooking some of the food that Ranma had bought yesterday. She felt indebted to him for his generosity he bestowed upon her family and vowed to thank him to the best of her ability.  
  
The rest of the inhabitants slowly filtered into the dining room and waited for Nodoka to bring out breakfast. This was a new thing here and most of them haven't gotten used to eating this early in the morning. Ranma was the last to enter the dining room, yawning loudly as he entered.  
  
"Ranma." She turned to regard him getting onto her knees. "The girls and I would like to thank you for your generosity." She placed both of her hands on the floor and bowed so her head was touching the floor.  
  
"Get up Mrs. Saotome, don't worry too much about it. I just couldn't stand the thought that anybody could live with so little, I did what I could to help." Not to mention that it was actually Happosai that paid for all of it.  
  
"Then please sit and eat breakfast with us. From now on you won't have to buy your food what you pay for rent will be for room AND board." This was the least she could do considering that he single-handedly furnished and stocked the home.  
  
"I'm honored for your kindness." Oh god now he had no way out of eating that stuff they called food.  
  
Breakfast was a calm affair. Nobody spoke much and what little was said was compliments to Nodoka's cooking. Soon though people had to leave. Nodoka and Kasumi left for their respective jobs and Akane and Nabiki for school. Nabiki left first to set up the betting pools for the day. That left Akane and Ranma as the last people in the house.  
  
"Hmm guess I'd better go to school then." Ranma sighed. He didn't want to go but knew that he'd need something of an education if he wanted to get anywhere.  
  
When Akane was about halfway to school she realized that she was being followed. She spun around intending to knock whoever was following her on their ass. She was surprised to find her book bag sailing through empty space. Because she'd expected to connect with the skull of her stalker she couldn't compensate for the extra momentum she put into the swing. As a result she was the one who was put on her ass.  
  
From her new position she could see Ranma crouching grinning like a mad man.  
  
"Are you getting a good look pervert!" She was steamed more at missing than anything else.  
  
Ranma looked down. "Oh yeah I knew those sky blue panties would look good on you. Just glad to know that I was right."  
  
"Pervert!" She slapped her dress down violently while swinging her book bag again at his head.  
  
He didn't dodge this time.  
  
"I deserved that." Well he got a free look and she got to hit him for it. Both were harmless activities.  
  
He stood up to his full height and then bent over to offer her a hand up. She reluctantly took it and he pulled her to her feet. He was tempted to dust off her backside but felt that a free look was all he was willing to dare for today.  
  
"So why were you following me anyway?" She was hoping he wasn't a stalker. But he lived in their house so what use would he have for stalking her?  
  
"Well I figured I'd better go to school. Problem is that I don't know where it is. By the time I decided I should go everybody but you had left. I just decided that I could follow you and find where I needed to go."  
  
"Fine but when we get to school don't get in my way." If he decided to get into the morning fights she was proverbially fucked. She looked over at him walking beside her. Ok maybe literally fucked would be a better description. Although Nabiki was right he was a lot better looking and behaved than most of the Furinken horde.  
  
They continued on their way towards Furinken. When they were approaching the gates Ranma noticed a large horde of boys waiting just inside the gates. He had no idea what this was about but unconsciously matched Akane's increase in speed. When they reached the gates Ranma jumped on top of the fence to watch the show. He didn't know what was going on but he sure as hell wasn't going to get involved when she told him not to. Unless of course she looked like she was in trouble, then he'd jump in.  
  
Having a good breakfast two days provided her with tons more energy than what she was used to having. The end result was that boys went flying left and right as she literally tore through the horde in record time. Nabiki was watching from the second story window with a stop watch. When the last opponent had hit the dirt she clicked the stopwatch, blinked a few times then wrote down the time in a log book.  
  
Back down on the field of slaughter Ranma decided that it was safe to come down and ask what the hell was going on. Unfortunately for him the main event was actually the warm up.  
  
"So what the hell was that about?" Sure it was good practice against multiple opponents but he didn't know how they could have gotten all those boys to come out here and get beaten on without them giving up.  
  
Before she got to answer a rose shot out of nowhere towards her. Out of reflex Ranma's hand shot out and caught it. Unsure of what to do with it he handed it over to Akane.  
  
"I guess this was for you." He'd gotten involved. He didn't thing the guy behind the tree was going to get involved since he didn't sense any malice from him. The problem was that now that he'd caught the rose the as yet to be introduced stalker was directing a lot of hate... particularly in his direction.  
  
"You there how dare you interrupt my message of love for the fierce tigress Akane Tendo."  
  
"It was a ..." He never got to finish.  
  
"Hold foul minion of the dark. Is it not common before battle for the noble to give his own name first." Without missing a beat he continued. "I am Tatewake Kuno Age 17 Star of the kendo team, Junior group E, Love of all of the ladies. I am the Supreme Thunder of Furinken High." Thunder could be heard in the background.  
  
"But I didn't..." Again he didn't get to finish as Kuno lashed out with his bokken.  
  
"Hold foul cur so that I may smite you."  
  
"But I didn't do anything!"  
  
"Tis the guilty man who doth protest his innocence to even the pauper in the streets."  
  
"But... Aw to hell with it." Ranma shot forward and punched Kuno once. Well at least that's what it looked like to everybody else. To Kuno it felt like hundreds of blows rained down on all of his front, which is what actually happened.  
  
The momentum imparted from all of these strikes was enough to propel him back fifteen feet. He didn't feel his landing though as he was already unconscious. Everybody gawked at this. The greatest fighter (after Akane of course) in the school had just been taken out with one punch. Akane was as good as claimed.  
  
It was about that time that the late bell rung. Akane squawked, grabbed her bag and ran full speed towards the doors. Ranma was still outside as it started to rain. His first day of school and he was likely to get expelled for fighting.  
  
Now his next problem was that he had no idea where the office was.  
  
After about half an hour and asking for directions three times, he finally arrived at the main office. Upon entering he noticed that there was a definite theme to the office. Palm trees, sand, secretaries in grass skirts and coconut bra's, a whole pig roasting on a spit, some guy with a palm tree growing out of his head, surf boards. Wait a minute go back one.  
  
Sure enough there was a guy in an extremely loud Hawaiian shirt with a fricking palm tree growing out of his head. He made sure to give the loony plenty of space as he made his way to what he thought was the front desk. In reality it was a surfboard held up with two rocks with a bell on it.  
  
"Umm excuse me." It wasn't too late to just go to a different school.  
  
"Yes can I help you?" She was a middle aged not too shabby looking secretary.  
  
"Yeah I'd like to register as a student please." He was getting nervous.  
  
"Any particular reason why you'd want to?" Nobody in their right mind came to this school unless they were brain-dead, broke, or troublemakers.  
  
"Umm it's close to where I'm staying." Now he was really nervous.  
  
"Alrighty then just fill out these forms and we'll get your class schedule ready for you."  
  
Ranma accepted the forms and went over to another surfboard far away from the lunatic and began to fill out the forms. Most of the stuff was pretty easy.  
  
Name: Ranma Shinkara Sex: Male Age: 16 (he guessed) Mother's name: Didn't have one Father's name: ditto Last school attended: Home schooled Marital status: single  
  
It was after this that the questions started getting weird.  
  
Are you a martial artist: yes  
  
If yes can you cause massive destruction: yes  
  
Are there crazy's out for your hide who are martial artists that can cause mass destruction: no  
  
Are you a magical girl/boy/mascot: no  
  
Are you allergic to pineapple juice/poi/roast pig: no  
  
Have you ever had an erotic dream about a palm tree: NO  
  
The questions continued and he tried to answer them the best he could. He had to lie on some of them as they were a little too personal for his tastes. When he was done he took the papers up to the secretary. She looked at the important information wrote down his name and phone number, and then threw the papers into the garbage.  
  
"Ok I've decided that you're going to be in freshman class group F."  
  
"Umm don't I have to take a placement test or anything I mean.."  
  
"Nah don't worry about it, I'm sure you're smart enough." She pulled out a schedule and handed it to him. "Here are your classes. If you want to you could take the rest of the day off or you could try to make your next class."  
  
"I think I'll try to go to class." He said while looking at his schedule. Practical hula, should be easy enough.  
  
Heading out of the office he went to the practice yard where the rest of his class was waiting for the instructor. Since he didn't have any supplies yet he decided to just watch . He noted that the rest of the students were in grass skirts and the girls had coconut bras on. He saw Akane in the back row and waved to her. She obviously didn't see him what with her turning her head away like that.  
  
The instructor was a burly man with a beer belly. Not good combinations when one is a hula instructor.  
  
"Alrights we's got a noo stoodent today. Hee's name's Ranma Sheenkara. Nows I understand it's hees first day soo hee's not going to have hees stoof." He turned his burly frame towards where Ranma was standing.  
  
"Ok you'se wearing boxers or briefs?" His massive gut jiggled with every word.  
  
"Umm boxers sir." Why would he want to know what kind of underwear he was wearing?  
  
"Ok goood. Takes off all your clothes except for your gitch and get in line." This was met with much cheering. Mostly from the girls, but there were a couple of males that gave a cheer.  
  
Not knowing what else to do and not caring if he had to dance completely naked. (It would have caused most of the girls to faint but he'd do it) He stripped to his boxers and got into line.  
  
The instructor started teaching and the students were trying to copy what he was doing without throwing up. The girls behind him were the only ones that were safe from this as they had a much more pleasant thing to look at. At the end of the class Ranma thought that he had gotten the basics down, and that with his martial arts training he should have it down in three classes' tops.  
  
He got dressed and looked around for Akane but couldn't find her anywhere. He shrugged his shoulders and ran towards the main building, he had to find his next class and he had no idea where to go.  
  
The next class was math, it was his worst subject. Of course being the new guy the teacher just had to pick him to answer some questions. He did his best but he ended up getting the decimal place wrong. He was sent back to his seat with everybody laughing at him. The only one that wasn't laughing was Akane and that was because she was trying to ignore him. He was completely lost in the work. Maybe he could ask Nabiki or Akane to give him a hand.  
  
Chemistry was next up on the list for the day. Chemistry and magical theory are so interrelated that they were more or less one in the same. The problem was that magic was more or less a forgotten art in the world today. If only people knew that thousands of years ago people had more advanced powers than they do today he wondered what they would think of it.  
  
The teacher was droning on at the front of the class about how the two chemicals combined to make a compound etc, etc, etc. It was boring he already knew this stuff inside and out. Pulling several vials from storage he went to work making a healing potion. It was one of the first things that his grandmother had drilled into his head was how to do this just incase he ever needed one in a pinch.  
  
The teacher noticed what he was doing but decided to ignore him until he was finished. About ten minutes later the beaker had about 25 ml of a bluish fluid in it. It was just a simple potion of cure minor wounds, it would cure a scratch or minor cut or scab over more major wounds. Its usefulness came in that it stopped you from bleeding to death.  
  
"Well now that you're done would you mind sharing with the class what you've been disturbing my class for Mr. Shinkara?" The teacher was not really mad but he couldn't have any troublemakers in his class.  
  
"Just a minor potion sensei." The truth seemed stranger than fiction.  
  
"Well since you're obviously not paying attention then you can answer this question. How does the chlorine combine with the tetramethylsulfide?"  
  
"Well with the covalent bonding the chlorine only needs one electron to complete it's valence shell so it takes one of the triple bonds and breaks it to form a double bond and then it shares one of the electrons with the carbon providing a lower energy state molecule." He hoped he got it all correct.  
  
The teacher was dumfounded. The answer he gave was correct of course but it was more an answer he would have expected from a university student not a home schooled student from the back woods.  
  
"Umm yes that is correct just... just try to sit still then and don't touch anything until I tell you ok?" Just ignore him and everything will be fine.  
  
Chemistry class and the Physics that was right after it were boring but he somehow stayed awake enough to not fall asleep.  
  
Finally after much torture it was the last class of the day. Computer class. Now while Ranma knew of physics, chemistry, math (well he knew of it) and various other subjects, computers were not something you learned about it the backwoods. He knew that they existed, however what they did or how to work them were mysteries to him.  
  
"Alright class here is your assignment for today...." He then proceeded to ramble off some compu speak that just left Ranma totally confused.  
  
While the rest of the students were typing away at something Ranma was just staring at the log in screen. He tried looking around him but for the life of him he couldn't understand how the other students were working these computers.  
  
The teacher who had been circulating around watching the students do their work came to Ranma's station.  
  
"Mr. Shinkara aren't you going to get to work sometime?" Smart assed punk thinks he can just slack off in his class.  
  
"Umm I've kinda never seen one of these before."  
  
"These are fairly old models I'm sure you're used to working with better equipment..."  
  
"No you don't understand I've never used a computer at all before!" Damn swallowing his pride was difficult.  
  
At his outburst the rest of the class stopped typing and looked at him.  
  
"What do you mean you've never used a computer before???? Every student learns to use a computer in Junior High."  
  
"I never went to Junior high, my grandmother taught me at home but we were out in the woods and didn't have a computer out there so I never learned."  
  
The teacher hung his head.  
  
"Alright here's what you've got to do. The Junior High is just down the road. What you've got to do is go there during this class and learn how to use a computer." Heh he wouldn't be allowed off campus and therefore he would fail this course.  
  
"Alright." He hung his head. He knew that he couldn't legally get off campus and he sure as hell couldn't pass himself off as a Junior high student.  
  
The school day finally ended much to Ranma's delight. His first day of school ever... now he understood why the students hated it so much.  
  
"Hey Ranma what's up!" yelled Nabiki across the courtyard.  
  
"Not much." He yelled back but not as loud as she had started to cross the difference between them.  
  
He waited till she caught up before he continued. "Apparently my math's not too good and they want me to go to junior high to catch up on my computer skills."  
  
Nabiki had to hold in her laughter. "I guess you've never used a computer before. I could teach you how to use one but we don't own a computer."  
  
Ranma grabbed her hand and started dragging her off towards the shopping district.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"Well you said that you could teach me to use a computer if you guys had a computer. Well we're going to get a computer now." It was then that he remembered something important. "Umm where's the computer store?"  
  
"This way dummy." She reversed his grip and started pulling him towards the store.  
  
When they got there Nabiki immediately went to the back of the store and started quickly looking over the older models discarding the ones that didn't have the features she wanted. Ranma just watched as she started haggling with the salesman. He was impressed with her skill at talking circles around him. In the end she had negotiated 5,000 yen off the original price, a free printer and scanner, and free delivery.  
  
As they were exiting the store Nabiki grabbed his hand and started dragging him off towards one of the restaurants. More specifically the Cat Cafe.  
  
"What?" He suspected that she wanted to spend the money that she saved him on a little treat for herself.  
  
"Well I was thinking about some ramen or something just until supper." Free food.  
  
"Alright but nothing too expensive."  
  
"Yes dear." She giggled as she dragged him into the restaurant.  
  
The inside of the restaurant was immaculately clean. There was a young girl about sixteen or seventeen going around wiping down the tables and making sure that everything was perfectly clean. She had a long luxurious mane of purple hair with beads woven into it. Staring a little longer that he had intended he managed through sheer willpower to wrench his eyes away from her very curvy form before Nabiki caught him staring.  
  
The next thing that caught his eye was the boy moping the floor. He was not really remarkable about him, except that he was wearing glasses two or three centimeters thick. Oh yeah and the fact that he was carrying enough weaponry to make him think twice about attacking him.  
  
Whipping his head to the side he saw the oldest woman he'd ever seen before. That wasn't what drew him to her in the first place, it was her mountainous ki signature. Sure she wasn't quite as strong as grandmother but she was still a lot stronger than he was.  
  
"Well hello there dearie how are you today." She said addressing Nabiki.  
  
"I'm fine Elder I see you're still among the living."  
  
"Ha death is too afraid of me to take me just yet. And who may I ask is that fine gentleman standing beside you." She was studying him carefully trying to figure where she'd seen those features before.  
  
"Hello elder my name is Ranma Shinkara of the clan Shinkara." He bowed low. His grandmother taught him to always respect one's elders until they stopped deserving respect.  
  
"I knew it! It's good to see that the clan lives on, I had thought they all died out fifty years ago."  
  
"They almost were. To my knowledge elder I am the last of my clan." Ranma was confused now, how exactly did she know about his clan.  
  
"May I see your clan medallion? I just want to see it again."  
  
Ranma reached into his personal space and pulled out his grandmother's medallion. The polished mythril glinted in the sunlight like a multitude of diamonds.  
  
"Ahh it's as beautiful as I remember it. Yes you are who you say you are. Welcome to my establishment clan Shinkara friends of the Amazons." She bowed as if he was a peer. Both Shampoo and Mousse were shocked at this as they thought that the elders bowed to no one.  
  
"Great-grandmother what so special about him?"  
  
"Granddaughter long before you were born his clan helped save the Amazons from a combined musk/phoenix attack. Without their help the Amazon nation would not exist." She looked down towards the ground. "However at the end of the battle it was thought that all of the clan were extinct. I'm happy to see that that is not the case." Maybe she could even get her granddaughter hitched to him. Hell she knew at least five girls in the village who wouldn't mind sharing him. Maybe now she can get Shampoo off that inbred directionally challenged idiot that beat her at the annual festival.  
  
"We're here for a little snack elder, Ranma here is just renting out one of our rooms." She didn't know why but the look Cologne was giving Ranma creeped her out.  
  
"Of course, where are my manners today. Sit sit. Shampoo could you get them some water and menus. Mousse you lazy... get back to work!"  
  
Shampoo jumped into action having water and menus. She was silently fuming that she had to serve Nabiki and was wondering why her grandmother was being so nice to this stranger. Sure he was an ally but that couldn't be the whole story.  
  
"So what's good here?" Ranma asked Nabiki.  
  
"The bon bon chicken is extremely good but it takes forever..." She was cut off as Cologne came out with a bowl of deluxe ramen and a chunk of raw tuna sliced up.  
  
"I thought that this might be better than what you could find on the menu."  
  
"But we haven't ordered yet." complained Nabiki. She was looking forward to a nice simple sweet and sour chicken.  
  
"On the house." That perked up Nabiki's mood.  
  
"Why Elder you aren't just trying to get in his good graces so you can foist your granddaughter on him are you?" Why was she doing this? It wasn't like she was attracted to Ranma was it? Hell no she just met him, there's no way that she's fallen for him.  
  
"No no, nothing like that it's just that I'm happy to see a survivor. This was before all of you were born but we owe them so much that a simple meal is nothing. I'm happy to provide it for him." She paused to let them calm down a bit before she continued. "Of course if he wants to personally help bring back his clan I can have ten maidens here in a week ." She winked at him "You won't be able to leave the bedroom for another three weeks after that though." She then started cackling at her own joke. Then to add gasoline to the fire she said. "Oh if only I was 200 years younger. If I remember right you Shinkara's are animals between the sheets."  
  
Ranma wolfed down his food and half of Nabiki's in the blink of an eye.  
  
"Well that was great Elder but I'm afraid that Nabiki and I have a lot of things to do today. A-heh I'll try to stop by more often, I'd like to hear some more about my clan if you don't mind."  
  
"Of course not, these youngsters these days never want to listen to any of my stories." Such a nice boy, his parents must be proud of him.  
  
Once they were out of the cafe they made haste towards the dojo. Once they arrived there they noticed that the delivery truck was just unloading the computer. Akane was helping by bringing the parts inside. Nodoka was probably in the kitchen working on supper and Kasumi probably hadn't returned from her second job yet.  
  
"Hey Nabiki do you know anything about this computer? They just started delivering it and I didn't know anything about it."  
  
"Ranma bought it." That should explain it.  
  
"But Ranma can't use a computer to save his life!"  
  
Nabiki just rolled her eyes. "That's why he bought a computer. I'll teach him how to use one. That and if we get the internet it might help him find his parents."  
  
"Oh ok so where are you going to put it?"  
  
"My room of course." Well she was the only one in the house who knew how to use it and could make good use out of it. Plus it would give Ranma a good reason to be in her room.  
  
Once the computer was set up, which took quite a while since she had to explain absolutely everything to him, Nodoka called everyone down for supper.  
  
Supper was not very good at least according to Ranma. But he held his tongue about it. After it was done Nabiki dragged him back up to her room and began teaching him computer basics 101. Around 7 at night it was starting to get dark and the moon was going to rise soon, they were still working hard. Nabiki was astonished at how quickly he was picking it up.  
  
Ranma was amazed. He had no idea that they had machines that could do so much. He was so engrossed in the workings of the device that he completely forgot that tonight was the first night of the full moon. Well he forgot until he felt the first tingling of the change.  
  
Ears were shifted to the top of his head. Nose and mouth extended into a muzzle, hands and feet shifted to paws. His skeletal structure shifted and finally he sprouted yellow and black fur.  
  
Nabiki was too shocked to scream. But then again being shocked would wear off soon and oh boy was she working up a good scream.  
  
Ranma of course was quicker than that on the uptake. He jumped out of the chair and tackled her to the ground. Since he was trying to get her under control quickly he never noticed the multitude of scratches that he inflicted on her. He finally managed to wrestle her to the ground and shove one of his paws over her mouth. Of course this is when she finally let loose with her blood curdling scream.  
  
It wasn't as effective as a hand over her mouth but the scream was more or less muffled from the 'wake up everybody in the neighborhood' to 'alert anybody in the adjacent rooms'. Luckily the rest of the house was downstairs watching TV really loudly on the new entertainment system.  
  
When she had finally screamed herself out, she noticed that he was acting very human like. She still didn't know what he was but deciding that as long as she didn't make any sudden moves she wouldn't be ripped apart by this predator that suddenly replaced her student/friend.  
  
Ranma deciding that he should probably try to calm her down jumped off and scooted over to the far side of the room. Coincidentally this just happened to be right in front of the door.  
  
"Nice kitty, good kitty, you're a good Ranma, you wouldn't rip me to pieces would you." She was just scared now and was rambling to try and calm herself down.  
  
The sight of an adolescent cheetah banging his head against the ground was enough to finally break her out of her terrified state. Now she was just scared. Let it be know though that the Tendo women are made of sterner stuff.  
  
"Ranma?" She came a little bit closer. "Is that you in there? Tap once for no twice for yes."  
  
He tapped his paw twice on the ground.  
  
"You can understand me! Do you know what happened? Why are you a cheetah now? Just what is going on?!!!" Her natural curiosity combined with her fear started her babbling again.  
  
"grawr" Bang, bang bang bang. Knowing he couldn't speak while in cheetah form he resorted to beating his head against the floor.  
  
"Oh right you can't speak." She really wanted those answers. "The computer! You can type instead of talking!" Boy she was smart today.  
  
"gwar roar meow." Great plan except that he didn't have fingers anymore.  
  
Deciding that maybe he could use his claws to type with he jumped up into the chair and tried to open the word processor. Paws were made for walking on not for the manual dexterity required to move a mouse.  
  
"Here let me help you with that." Nabiki said as she rushed over and opened the appropriate program.  
  
Since he was a newbie computer user he still hadn't mastered home row and was forced to hunt and peck when he wanted a key. Now because he didn't have fingers hunt and peck took on a whole new meaning.  
  
/I am were cheetah, no not bad, not hurt you, no be afraid of me./  
  
"You're a lycanthrope? But why aren't you a savage beast trying to snack on my insides? I mean all of the werewolf movies and all."  
  
/Yes is true but can learn to control, most new no have old one teach them. Me have grandmother teach me./  
  
"So is it true you know the silver thing?"  
  
/Silver only for wolves. evry were have difrnt weaknss. I no tell you weakns sorry personal./  
  
"Yeah I guess if there was something that could hurt me I wouldn't want anybody to know it. So umm how long are you going to be a cat?"  
  
/3 day will go away... no good if here for that time, need go out away from ppl./  
  
"Are you really that dangerous?"  
  
/no no dangers but act like cat, want do cat things./  
  
"Like lick yourself, chase butterflies, play with yarn."  
  
/yes is very embarass when around ppl also want hunt but no can do in city. hate city for that./  
  
"Can I tell Auntie and my sisters about you? I mean they really deserve to know."  
  
/no no tell pls I no want many ppl to know, s dangrs others may no like may want kill me. i no want die. Elder knows I maybe stay with her. I no know./  
  
"Well I really want to talk to you about this some more but I guess you'd better get going before somebody catches you."  
  
/Yes I go now. open window./  
  
"Ok but wait for me by the front gate I'll walk with you to the Cat cafe."  
  
/k/  
  
With that he jumped out of the chair and padded over to the window. She opened it and watched as he jumped out and ran for the front gate. She ran downstairs donning her shoes and ran after him. When she got to the gate she looked around and couldn't see him anywhere. That's when she nearly had a heart attack as he seemed to just appear beside her.  
  
"Don't do that!" She hissed.  
  
He seemed to be snickering as they started off towards Cologne's restaurant. After about a block Ranma seemed to get tired of this and quickly darted behind Nabiki and then nuzzled his head between her legs. The end result was Nabiki straddling his back and him purring up a storm.  
  
"Damn it you walking vibrator don't ever do that again." Not that she was complaining too much, it felt good with the slow rumble, but any more and she was going to have problems with soaked panties. she was not into bestiality.  
  
After what seemed like forever they finally arrived. It was of course closed at this time of night but that was a lot better than them being open. They walked up to the front door and knocked. It took a few minutes but eventually Shampoo came to the door.  
  
"We is closed you no read sign?"  
  
"I'm not here for food, he wants to speak to Cologne."  
  
"Who? You is only one here, well you and big cat, and cat no talk."  
  
"Just get the old gh... I mean elder."  
  
Smack  
  
"Who's the old ghoul?" Youngsters these days they have no respect.  
  
"Yeah well I just found out something about our houseguest." She pointed at Ranma. "He kind of needs a place to stay for the next three days."  
  
"Forgot it was the first night of the full moon did you now? Well I guess you could stay here." She turned to Nabiki. "You can go home now don't worry he'll be just fine here, in fact you can visit him tomorrow if you'd like." She turned her attention back to Ranma. "Alright get your fuzzy ass in there and no shedding on the furniture." She nodded towards Nabiki. "Good evening." And with that she close the door.  
  
"Great-grandmother why you let big kitty in restaurant?" Shampoo had learned not to question her elders but usually bringing a large predator into your house was not a good idea at the best of times.  
  
"I guess I had better explain." She sat down in one of the chairs. "Long ago the lycanthropic races existed side by side with humans. Most were good and got along with us. Some like the were cheetahs and were tigers even signed treaties with us."  
  
"Aiyah! I not know this."  
  
"Yes now young Shinkara over there just happens to be the last were cheetah. Now you will not attack him while he is staying here, most likely it will just piss him off."  
  
Ranma was nodding at this.  
  
She turned her full attention to Ranma. "And you no biting my granddaughter or Mr. part time. Got it?"  
  
Ranma nodded. His grandmother had warned him that lycanthropy was contagious. He knew that if he wasn't going to kill it that he couldn't use his claws or his bite. It made fighting a hell of a lot more difficult but it was a necessity.  
  
"Alright now that that's finished you will sleep with Shampoo in her room."  
  
"Great-grandmother why??"  
  
"Because you have a big room. Don't worry he can sleep on the rug. All that fur will keep him plenty warm enough."  
  
"But..." Shampoo really didn't feel comfortable having a stranger in her room. Ryoga was different but then again he only turned into a harmless piglet, not an engine of destruction.  
  
"Don't worry dear, he'll be on his best behavior or else you can have a nice new rug." She looked at him. "Behave yourself only when you're human."  
  
He gulped as he wasn't quite sure if she was kidding or just trying to reassure her granddaughter.  
  
"Besides he's got to get up to help with the restaurant tomorrow."  
  
"rowr?"  
  
"Oh you thought I was just going to let you stay here for free? You can help with deliveries, if my memory is right you were cheetah's are pretty fast on your feet."  
  
"mew."  
  
"Oh get off it I'll have something ready for you by tomorrow."  
  
"Shampoo think go to bed now. This too too wierd." She grabbed her bonbori and headed upstairs.  
  
Cologne turned to Ranma.  
  
"What are you waiting for we've got a busy day tomorrow. Get upstairs now and go to sleep."  
  
He turned and began padding up the stairs towards where Shampoo went.  
  
"Oh yes and no funny business, save that for when your human again." She started cackling like the demented witch that she is.  
  
Ranma shuddered as he padded up the stairs after Shampoo. When he got to her room the door was open and the lights were off. He used his hind leg to close the door. Sitting on her futon he saw Shampoo decked out in Amazon battle armor with what he assumed was a silvered tai chi sword.  
  
He snickered at this and decided to play with her for a bit. he crouched down at the foot of her bed in a classic pounce position. He then proceeded to stare at her with his best 'I'm a predator and you're lunch as soon as you fall asleep' look.  
  
Needless to say that Shampoo was just a little scared the way she clutched her sword just that extra bit tighter.  
  
Suddenly the door swung open revealing Cologne.  
  
"And no scaring my granddaughter! Go to sleep!" She slammed the door closed.  
  
Ranma sighed as best a cat could sigh slowly got up and padded over to where Shampoo was still holding her sword. He settled down beside her. When she still didn't respond he rubbed his head against her hand while purring up a storm. He was trying his best to make himself look as harmless as possible.  
  
Eventually she calmed down enough to pat his head and scratch behind his ears, but she didn't let go of her sword.  
  
Oh well a little bit of trust is better no trust at all.  
  
Eventually they both fell asleep.  
  
Authors notes:  
  
Before you lynch me Ranma is a TSR were beast. It is an optional rule that lycanthropes do not all have to be vulnerable to silver. Ranma as with all were cheetah's will be vulnerable to jade/magic.  
  
The thing that most people wanted when they wrote to me was formatting. I hope that this will make it easier to read. What I will be doing is going back through previous chapters to add this miraculous 'formatting' to them as well.  
  
Did Nabiki fail her fort save? Well you'll just have to wait and find out.  
  
Comments/complaints  
  
nealharris@otakumail.com 


	5. Chapter 5

Disklamir: I disklaim to own anything. Not mine never was mine. Stealing for my own purposes.  
  
Chapter 5: Work of the Damned.  
  
The next morning Cologne walked into Shampoo's room and she almost giggled at the sight of Shampoo cuddling Ranma cheetah like a giant stuffed teddy bear while decked out in full Amazon battle armor and clutching a silvered Tai chi sword. She put her hands into her robes and pulled out a camera. She made sure she had the flash turned on. She then started snapping pictures as quickly as she could. With the amagouriken she was only limited by the speed of the camera.  
  
"Rowr!" Ranma hated rude awakenings, especially since he couldn't detect the old woman's presence until that damn flash started going off.  
  
Normally cheetah's are not good climbers but when motivated this particular were cheetah went straight up the wall and began creeping along the ceiling.  
  
The sound of an old crone laughing her ass off was how Shampoo greeted the morning. Needless to say her mouth tasted like wet cat fur. Oh wait that was cat fur. She crawled to a sitting position spitting out bits of hair from her mouth.  
  
"Aiyah, where Ranma?" Shampoo was confused. She remembered Ranma crawling into her bed last night. She looked around and couldn't find Ranma anywhere.  
  
By the time Shampoo finally woke up Ranma had had enough of the ceiling clinging. He unceremoniously dropped right in front of her. Her natural reaction to a sudden shock was to scream and lash out. Unfortunately the hand that she lashed out with was the one with the sword.  
  
Ranma being a highly trained were cheetah had an insane dexterity; however he was not able to totally evade the swing and as such got a shallow cut along his shoulder blade. It bled a little bit but not enough to be of any consequence. In fact it was healed in about ten seconds with not even a scar to show that he had been injured. He calmly licked the blood out of his pelt, looked up grinned/bared his fangs, then walked out of the room.  
  
"Don't worry granddaughter he's not mad he's just..." It was then that she heard the crashing from downstairs and Mousse screaming something about a demon. "Oh dear it seems that I forgot to tell Mousse about our house guest." More crashing could be heard from downstairs "I do hope that he doesn't hurt Mousse too much, blood stains are extremely hard to get out of hardwood."  
  
"Shampoo hope Ranma eat Mousse."  
  
"Yes that would solve quite a few problems wouldn't it?" She heaved a sigh. "Well I'd better get down there before he does actually kill him. Help that works for nothing is extremely hard to find these days." She started shuffling downstairs to try and minimize the damage to her restaurant. Shampoo was of course hot on her heels.  
  
When they got downstairs they had to dodge as Mousse flew past them to impact against the wall. Ranma had his back to them like he'd just executed a mule kick, which was the most likely propulsion method by which Mousse gained his flight ability. There was surprisingly little damage to the restaurant. Only a table and two chairs were destroyed. However there were piles of weapons on the floor and quite a few throwing knives stuck in the wall.  
  
"Well Mr. Part Time you seem to have met our guest."  
  
"No mommy I don't want to eat my broccoli, it's icky." Mousse didn't mind the concussion as much since now there were four Shampoos.  
  
"Alright we've got to get this cleaned up before we open. Alright hop to it." She just wished she could have watched Ranma while he fought, it would have been interesting at the least.  
  
Over the next hour they managed to clean up all of the weapons and broken furniture. Only one of the chairs could be salvaged but they didn't have enough time to effect proper repairs on it so they put it in the back storeroom. Ranma was useful only for dragging things since he didn't have hands.  
  
"Alright now Ranma you're on deliveries today I've figured out how you can do this. Ok now hold still."  
  
She then used the amagouriken to attach a banner around his midsection with the Cat Cafe on it and their address and a special for anybody who comes in and mentions the cheetah. Around his neck she tied a bag with a note for people to put the money in the bag and that the cheetah would not bite unless they tried to steal anything.  
  
"There we go; a living billboard. Ok Shampoo today we're going to have a special for anybody who mentions the cheetah. 25% off ok."  
  
"Ok 25% if mention large cat ok." At least she wouldn't have to go around on her bike. It was fun but the pollution and crazy drivers and pedestrians that always got in her way.  
  
"Rawr rrrr."  
  
"Too bad. You work for me you play by my rules kitty cat. Now here's the map of our delivery radius, I expect you to run as fast as you can..."  
  
"Rrrr."  
  
"Don't give me that I once watched one of your kind chase down a spring deer from over 200 yards away. Now don't spill anything. Anything that you drop or spill will come out of your pay."  
  
"Rwr? Rrrrr."  
  
"Oh that's right I don't pay you do I. Well you can just work off whatever you spill."  
  
Ranma just hung his head.  
  
"Now you're getting the idea!"  
  
The door opened and Kasumi stepped into the restaurant. She was wearing a short Chinese style silk dress almost exactly the same as Shampoo's. Unlike Shampoo's pink dress Kasumi's was a royal purple. Her hair was done up in a single ponytail with a red ribbon to hold it in place. What Ranma found most disturbing though was the sword strapped to her back.  
  
She did a quick scan of the restaurant immediately sensing something was wrong. Her gaze lingered a bit on where the broken table and chairs had been then on to where Mousse was filling in dagger holes. Her gaze then fell to where Ranma was sitting with the banner waving slightly in the wind from the open door. She blinked while Ranma just sat there trying to look as cute and innocent as possible. She reached out with her hand to try and pet him. As her hand approached his head Ranma felt the strangest urge to bite her. He tried to fight it but as her hand approached the urge got stronger and stronger. Just as she was within biting range he lashed out and found his mouth full of wood.  
  
Cologne remained in her original position. She had pushed Kasumi's hand out of the way and shoved her cane into his mouth.  
  
"Now is not the time to see about petting the help Kasumi dear. How about you go and help Shampoo in the kitchen."  
  
Kasumi was holding her hand as if it was bitten. "Of course elder." She said as she backed off rather hastily towards the kitchen area.  
  
Cologne sighed. "You are not at fault." She said looking at Ranma. "Apparently ever since she was young she has always loved cats however whenever she tries to pet one it bites her. It has something to do with her aura I think." She paused. "Are you familiar with Jusenkyo?" He shrugged and waived his paw around a bit. "I tried using a one use only packet of spring of drowned cat on my granddaughter and she even bit her. It is most peculiar." Seeing Ranma was still not convinced she decided to try one more time. "You didn't bite her don't worry. If she ever tries to pet you again just run away."  
  
"Rwr."  
  
"Alright now you just sit there we've got lots of work to do before we are ready to open." She said as she pulled her staff out of his mouth and pogo'd back to the kitchen.  
  
The next couple of hours were spent with Cologne, Shampoo and Kasumi doing tons of prep work. Since they really didn't want his dirty paws in the food Ranma was delighted to watching Mousse fill in the holes in the wall from their impromptu sparring session, also known as ass kicking.  
  
When the restaurant finally opened it was immediately swamped. Ranma was overwhelmed and downright scared when the food started flying out of the kitchen... literally. He was forced to catch a couple of plates himself when they came soaring his way. One on his head and the other balanced on his tail. When he got to the table the people were surprisingly unaffected by his presence. These people in Nerima seemed extremely resistant to strange and weird things.  
  
"Ranma there's a delivery to the school. Hurry up now."  
  
Since he'd been to the school already he knew he could find his way there. He ran up to the counter and grabbed the takeout box that Cologne had left for him and ran out the door. Cologne had given him a time limit on deliveries. Unfortunately the limit she set was about 5 minutes less than what he needed to actually do the job.  
  
As soon as he got out the door he engaged the overdrive and tore off down the street in excess of 60 KM/h. Usually he would breathe through his mouth when he was running this fast but with the takeout box in his mouth he was forced to breath through his nostrils. It was tiring him out a lot quicker than his normal runs.  
  
When he reached the gates to the school he knew that he had to jump the wall. At the speed he was going it didn't take much to make the jump. The takeout box not even josceling once. When he had landed he noticed a group of girls gathered under a tree. He didn't recognize the name of the person who placed the order so he wandered over to see if he could get directions. When he got there he noticed, much to his horror, that Nabiki was sitting with them.  
  
"What the hell?!" One of the girls shouted.  
  
"Hey that looks like one of the Cat Cafe's take out boxes." Commented one of the girls. "Hey Noriko that looks like your lunch." Another shouted.  
  
Nabiki of course was laughing her ass off at a joke only she understood.  
  
"Wow what a cute cheetah, I wonder where they got one so smart?"  
  
"Smart hell I wonder how they trained it to do deliveries."  
  
"With that old woman who knows. Did you know I once saw her pluck chestnuts right out of a roaring fire!"  
  
"Hey yeah I saw that once too." Said Noriko. "Well how do I pay you little guy?" She said with a questioning look.  
  
Ranma lifted his head to show her the bag that he carried around his neck.  
  
"Ok here you go." She was a little hesitant but eventually got up the nerve to put the few coins into the pouch. She gave him a quick pet on his head. Ranma then bowed as best he could, grabbed the take out box and took off at top speed back towards the Cat cafe knowing he was going to be late.  
  
"Oh come on Nabiki it's not that funny."  
  
In response to this Nabiki just laughed harder.  
  
On his way back he tried to put a bit more power into his run. The problem was that cheetahs were good on straightaways but they couldn't maintain that high speed for very long before they got tired and had to rest.  
  
Ranma was not a normal cheetah though. He had been taught by his grandmother how to access his ki to boost his physical stats like speed, strength, toughness, healing etc beyond what his normal weir transformation gave him. The problem was that he was burning tons of ki right now and if this kept up he was going to be spent before the lunch rush was over.  
  
As he was walking into the door Cologne's voice rang out.  
  
"Took you long enough, there's another delivery for the preschool down the street." Suddenly a dart appeared from nowhere and stuck into the exact location on the delivery map for the preschool.  
  
Ranma saw the delivery box with the name on it. He grabbed it and ran off towards the preschool. About twenty minutes later he returned to the restaurant.  
  
"Aiyah! Too too cute. Shampoo have sugar shock."  
  
Kasumi was just staring trying her hardest to resist going over there and hugging the cute kitty.  
  
It was easy to see what was wrong. As soon as he'd gotten to the preschool he'd been able to find the teacher who placed the order. She had been terrified of him at first but since he was wearing a banner that marked him as belonging to the Cat Cafe she calmed down enough to take her food and pay him. She scooted back after that. Ranma bowed and began to leave.  
  
It was then that his nightmare started. The children had originally been afraid of him, but given the time the teacher took to pay they had gotten over their fear. The collective call (well the little girls at least) rose up from the playground.  
  
"Kitty!"  
  
He tried to get away, he really and truly did, but he couldn't do it without hurting any of them. He finally gave up. The next few minutes were pure torture. His fur was short but they somehow managed to pull up enough to tie off pink ribbons... lots of pink ribbons... sickening amounts of pink ribbons. After they exhausted their seemingly limitless supply of ribbons they went on to try and ride the cute kitty. The teachers who were still reeling from seeing a cheetah snapped into action when the children tried to get on and go for a ride.  
  
Ranma was grateful when the teachers pulled the little monsters off of him. He bowed to the teachers (which incidentally looked like he was going to pounce) then took off like the bats of hell were nipping on his ass.  
  
He managed to break some speed records on his way back.  
  
Unfortunately he burned up most of his ki doing it. (That and got at least 6 cars in trouble for speeding when he passed by the photo radar.) When he arrived at the door to the Cat Cafe he was extremely tired. He wavered for a few seconds after Shampoo spoke, then he fell over smacking his head against the floor. He didn't move after that until Cologne tossed a bucket of water on him.  
  
"Get up you slacker I'm not paying you to just lay around." She flashed her hands out and removed all of the ribbons from his fur. She then put down a bucket of water in front of him along with some meat. "When you're ready there is another delivery." She then hoped back to the kitchen to continue cooking. Lunch was almost over anyway.  
  
Shampoo was watching Ranma closely. Elder Cologne never pushed her as hard as she was pushing Ranma right now. She would have to ask her about it later. She just hoped that Ranma would be able to survive the day.  
  
Mousse on the other hand was furious. Sure it was explained to him that Ranma was a were cheetah and that he wasn't supposed to fight him anymore but damn it! He slept with Shampoo! This wasn't what Mousse was looking for. He had enough competition with Hibiki (He couldn't beat him but he was trying.). Shampoo was his and only his.  
  
Ranma had pretty much had it for today but it wasn't quite over yet. When he'd finished his food and water he grabbed the takeout box and took off towards the destination. He didn't go at top speed because he didn't have much energy left. If he was going to make it through the day he was going to have to pace himself.  
  
Two deliveries later the lunch rush was finally over and he was allowed to rest. While Shampoo, Kasumi and Mousse cleaned up he basked in the sun trying to get his energy back. While he was basking Cologne came out to him.  
  
"You didn't do too badly for your first shift." He growled a bit at her. "I hope you realize that this is training. I do the same thing to Shampoo it helps improve her strength, speed, and endurance. I'm taking it much harder on you since you seem to be a lot slower than a lot of the other were cheetah's that I've known." He grumbled a bit at this. "Yes I am aware that you're fast but you can't hold that speed for very long and you get tired a lot faster than you should. I'm going to try and help with that. Hell I may even teach you a move or two if you're lucky." He started banging his head against the ground. If the rest of her training was as hard as this then he'd rather just jab a silvered dagger right through his own heart. Wouldn't kill him but it would be a more pleasant experience.  
  
She then got up and went back into the restaurant to take care of a couple of customers that just came in for a little snack. Ranma was left alone until school let out and the students started coming by. Most were just coming to look at the trained cheetah that they had seen or heard about at school. Once they'd come to the restaurant though the majority wanted to watch him perform. To do this however they had to order something.  
  
Ranma was forced to jump around twisting and turning to catch flying bowls, glasses, and assorted plates. To his credit he only dropped one plate and two glasses. It was near the end of one routine when Nabiki walked into the restaurant. He was so shocked that he dropped the plate he was balancing and missed the two incoming glasses.  
  
"Well look at what we have here. So is the kitty cat working hard?" She asked in a voice that was sweet at saccerine.  
  
He just growled in response.  
  
"You're paying for that!" Came from the kitchen.  
  
"Oops sorry about that. Didn't mean to distract you." She said.  
  
Two more plates came flying out of the kitchen towards Nabiki. She spun in the air catching both plates and put them down in front of the proper people without spilling a drop. The same thing happened a short time later when their drinks arrived.  
  
"I'm not as good as my sisters but I can do the martial arts thing in a pinch." She said as she winked to the boys that she had just served. She then held out her hand towards them. "Of course since I don't work here the floor show deserves a tip don't you think?"  
  
The two boys blanched and slapped some bills in her hands as quickly as they could get them out of their wallets. Ranma of course started banging his head against the floor again. If he wasn't a were cheetah he was sure that he'd get brain damage from this. He wasn't getting any tips or money of any kind from his work. All the money went to Cologne.  
  
He really needed a new agent.  
  
"Well then dearie you seem to know a thing or two about martial arts. You wouldn't be interested in a job would you? It can get so busy here and Shampoo and Mr. Part time can't keep up even with your sister helping." Kasumi came out of the kitchen to find out what was going on. "Ahh I'll pass on that. I've still got too much school work. Maybe Ranma would be interested in some part time after school and weekends."  
  
Ranma was busy shaking his head.  
  
"Well he is pretty lazy and all, so unreliable too. Hmm I guess I could hire him. Say 1000 yen per hour."  
  
"He gets to keep all of his tips and it's a deal."  
  
Ranma was really resisting the urge to ventilate Nabiki's dress.... and Nabiki too.  
  
"It's a deal then." She turned to Ranma. "You start at 4 on thursday, friday, and saturday."  
  
"What about Sunday's?" Asked Nabiki.  
  
"Oh Sunday's are your day to work. Open to close. I expect to see you here or I'll send Shampoo to get you."  
  
"But I don't want to work here!" She'd rather ram a silvered knife into her heart. It'd hurt less and she'd be assured that she wouldn't have to come back to work ever again.  
  
"Those that are quick to volunteer others should be willing to work themselves. I'll see you on Sunday."  
  
"Oh my Nabiki you're working here too? Oh this is just so great if we could get Akane here we could make it a sisters thing. Wouldn't that be so great?" Kasumi was happy, she got to work with a cute as all hell cheetah and her sister too.  
  
"Yeah great." Nabiki mumbled.  
  
"Yo furball enough slacking time to get back to work. Order for table three." Cologne yelled from the kitchen as ten bowls came flying out of the kitchen. Ranma caught three, Kasumi caught four, and Nabiki caught two. The last bowl landed in front of the person who ordered it.  
  
The food was quickly distributed to the waiting patrons. They clapped at the show of agility. Kasumi gave a little bow before flipping to the center of the room, pulling out the sword and going through a relatively complex kata. The patrons just watched the show as Shampoo joined her with her own sword dance.  
  
After the show was over some of the patrons put a little extra on the table for the tip. Dinner and a show, nobody did it better than the Cat Cafe.  
  
The day progressed and Ranma was run off his feet delivering order after order. Nabiki had to leave shortly after she was rounded into working for the old crone. Kasumi eventually left as well to go to her other job as a dancer.  
  
As the last customer left Ranma collapsed on the floor. About halfway through the supper rush they stopped doing deliveries and Shampoo had to go into the kitchen to help her great grandmother with the cooking. Mousse was in charge of taking orders and bussing tables, which left Ranma to deliver the orders to the table (see catch flying plates, bowls, glasses, etc). This continued until they closed at 8 pm.  
  
Cologne came out of the kitchen. She saw Ranma collapsed on the floor. "I guess you've done enough for tonight go get cleaned up and get some sleep."  
  
The blob that used to be Ranma oozed along the floor like a common garden slug, and up the stairs towards the furo completely forgetting that he didn't have hands to operate the knobs for the water. Cologne sighed and looked towards Shampoo.  
  
"Go give him a hand and take a bath yourself." She said.  
  
"Oh Shampoo I'll gladly wash your back!" Mousse shouted as he jumped up from where he was cleaning a table.  
  
He was immediately smacked down by the heavy stick of reality, otherwise known as Cologne's stick.  
  
"Oh no you don't Mr. Part time you get back to cleaning those tables. Ranma was doing your job today as well as part of Shampoo's so you get back to work."  
  
Mousse went back to cleaning the table. He was just finishing up refilling the various condiments on the table when he muttered.  
  
"Slave driver."  
  
"And don't you forget it!" Came from the kitchen area.  
  
Meanwhile upstairs Ranma had oozed his way to the furo door. The door was closed and the occupied sign was not out. Unfortunately for Ranma's gelatinous muscles the arduous task of jamming his paw in-between the door and the door jamb and prying it open was not possible so he just lay there staring at the door. He just sat there for five minutes before the door miraculously opened.  
  
"You need bath, you is smelling bad."  
  
"Grgl"  
  
"Then again you is male cat so it natural you smell bad."  
  
Ranma quickly considered biting her. He looked over at her ankle and tried to muster the strength to move his head. He got about halfway when he gave up and slumped back down. Effort is wasted on the lazy.  
  
"Alright come on we get you clean the go to sleep ok?" Shampoo said as she put out the occupied sign and grabbed him by the loose skin on the back of his neck and dragged him into the changing area. She dropped her clothes into the clothes hamper and then dragged him into the furo.  
  
She dropped him on the ground and went to fill up a bucket making sure that the water was freezing cold. She then stalked up to the oblivious cheetah laying on the floor.  
  
"You is waking up now!" She said cheerfully as she tossed the ice water on Ranma's prone form.  
  
Other than a slight twitch there was no reaction.  
  
"You is really tired." Shampoo commented. She was amazed that he really didn't react.  
  
"Oh well now we get you all clean." She said as she grabbed the soap and started lathering up his fur.  
  
She started out with his head and worked her way down his back all the way to his tail. She then lathered down his sides. She then noticed a small problem. She still needed to do his underside but didn't know if she should roll him over. In the end she gave up and flipped him onto his back. His legs which had been compressed by his body weight sprung out straight when his body weight was removed. Shampoo had to dodge his claws as his legs shot out at her suddenly.  
  
A little frightened by her near miss she grabbed some of the suds and started lathering his legs. She was amazed by the sheer muscle tone that was present on his legs. She wished she could feel him when he was human. She shook off that thought quickly, Ryoga was the only man for her.  
  
She still remembered when he defeated her in front of the entire village during the annual competition. It was her last match and she was up against Lin Se last years winner. Lin Se had just swung her spiked mace and she had dropped to a crouch to avoid it. Lin Se had overcompensated a fraction of a centimeter to compensate for her miss but that was all she needed. With a mighty smash Lin Se was sent flying off the challenge log and flying into the crowd. Just as she was raising her bonbori in victory she saw a boy around her age eating her prize. Fury surrounded her as she saw this. Sure as a good will gesture the champion always offered to share the prize with the village but this outsider male just came in and started eating!  
  
She jumped off the log and started yelling at him. She still remembered the way he looked with his hand behind his head with a piece of chicken sticking out of his mouth.  
  
One of the people in the audience she thought it was Shin Ke told the male what he had done. His response well according to Shin Ke was that the male had challenged her for the prize. She had to think about it for a second before she accepted. If she won she'd take the boy as a slave for a couple of weeks until he'd worked off his damages. If she lost... Well at least he was better than Mousse.  
  
They had gotten up onto the challenge log. She had pulled out her trusty bonbori, and she watched as the stranger pulled out an umbrella of all things. Deciding not to waste any time she charged. In hindsight her great-grandmother's lessons about never underestimating an opponent were never as true as they were on that day.  
  
Even now she couldn't remember how she got off the challenge log just that her head was ringing and she saw a couple of stars. Ahh the fun of concussions and other head trauma.  
  
She giggled as she remembered how he passed out when she actually gave him the kiss. She remembered dragging him to her room where he spent the entire night. He was unconscious so she didn't get to do any fun stuff with him. When she woke up the next morning he was gone without a trace. The sentries at the gate said that he didn't pass them so they guessed he must have jumped the wall.  
  
She still remembered the shame of her husband running out on her, the pointing of fingers, the whispers behind her back, and the looks her peers gave her.  
  
She tried tracking him down several times, but after going around in circles and convoluted trails for hours she eventually gave up and went to her friend Mi Tse. Mi Tse's mother was a bloodhound that had been thrown into the spring of drowned girl by the musk and then rescued by the Amazons. Mi Tse had tried tracking down her husband but the trail he left was too convoluted even for her sensitive nose. The best guess that she could give was that he had eventually headed east towards Japan but she couldn't be sure about that.  
  
It was only after her great grandmother suggested they try to track him down in Japan did things start to get interesting. They ended up tracking him down by accident one day when he was wandering through the Nerima district. It was then that they learned about his directional sense and that he got lost easily.  
  
By the time they found him he had already met Akane Tendo and a few other girls. He had started to fall for a few of them but his natural shyness prevented him from showing his affection for anybody.  
  
Well that and the fact that he tended to pass out in a fountain of blood whenever anything female showed any flesh whatsoever.  
  
She looked down at Ranma's form. He hadn't moved an inch since she had flipped him over. She reached over and grabbed the shower head. She turned it on full blast and adjusted the temperature so that it was hot but not scalding. She then turned to where Ranma was and proceeded to hose him down. The soap suds slid off his form like waves and were washed down the drain. His fur was matted down by the water. She kicked him over onto his stomach; his legs recompressing as they hit the tile floor. She then proceeded to hose off his back.  
  
Once all of the soap was off him he looked like he'd been dunked in hair gel. His short fur was plastered to his skin. He looked like a drowned cat. Shampoo giggled a bit as he looked up at her with his pathetic eyes.  
  
"Shampoo have to have bath now. Dry you off later ok?" She said as she sat down on the stool and began lathering herself up.  
  
From his position on the floor Ranma had an unobstructed view of her well muscled back and butt. He cracked a smile as he forced his now slightly rejuvenated muscles to raise him off the floor. She gave him a bath already and it was only good manners to return the favor. Too bad his muscles wouldn't raise him to the level of her back. Oh well as grandmother kept telling him 'work with what you've got.'  
  
Outside the walls and across the street the neighbors heard a loud...  
  
"Aiyah!"  
  
As Ranma proceeded to give Shampoo's back a good tongue lashing.  
  
About three licks in Shampoo spun around and glared at the grinning cheetah.  
  
"What you do that for?!" Shampoo shouted. "Pervert cat Shampoo should smash for that! Only husband allowed to touch Shampoo there!" She shouted. Ranma flinched back from the irate Amazon. "Go over by door and stay there!"  
  
Ranma slowly trudged over to the door his head hanging low and his ears drooping. He plopped down on the tile floor spraying water all over the place. He had just laid his head in his paws when the door suddenly flew open and Mousse rushed in.  
  
"Shampoo I'll save awk!"  
  
Ranma slowly removed his head from Mousse's crotch where he had head butted him when he had stepped on his tail. Mousse slowly fell backwards into the changing room banging his head against the tiles. Ranma reached out with his paw and slid the door shut again. He then laid his head back onto his paws.  
  
Shampoo continued to clean herself for a few minutes before she turned on the water and rinsed herself off. She then slid into the furo to soak for a bit. She let out a great sigh as she was fully submerged.  
  
"You can eat Mousse if he really bother you." Shampoo idly said as she adjusted herself to get more comfortable.  
  
Ranma started to hack and cough.  
  
"What wrong you no like Mousse? Him taste bad?" She asked with a confused look on her face.  
  
Ranma eventually hacked up a pink ribbon.  
  
"Aiyahhh." She said with wide eyes. She started to reconsider sleeping with him tonight.  
  
After a while Shampoo got out of the furo and did a bit of cleaning to make it ready for Mousse and her great grandmother. She grabbed Ranma by the back of his neck and dragged him into the changing room to get dried off. He left a trail of water in his wake and his fur polished the tile to a brilliant shine.  
  
"Shampoo finally figure out good use for lazy cat. You is making good mop!"  
  
Ranma just growled at this.  
  
Mousse had long since vacated the area since he didn't want to get another beating from Ranma. He had left a couple of silvered shrunken on the floor from when he staggered away.  
  
Shampoo grabbed a towel from the rack and started drying herself off. Ranma just watched as she swayed back and forth. He had to resist the urge to help her. She was a magnificent creature and he didn't blame Mousse one bit for trying to get her to be his mate. Too bad he was a lesser male not worthy of this ones attention. Looking up again he saw that she was standing right over him with a fresh towel. Her skin was glowing from a combination of the overhead incandescent and the miniscule bit of water that was still on her skin. She looked like some of the celestial creatures that his grandmother had shown him from her old books.  
  
He briefly thought of bedding her.  
  
That thought was quickly squashed as he went through all the 'not good' things that would happen if he were to pop this wildcat's cherry.  
  
She was bending over to dry him off when he suddenly got a very evil idea. Using his newly rejuvenated muscles he stood up quickly and shook himself like a dog. It had been quite some time since she washed him but his fur was still holding quite a bit of water. Little droplets of water flew off in every direction. Shampoo brought up the towel to shield herself but it was already too late she was wet again.  
  
Ranma just sat back on his haunches, opened his mouth and let his tongue hang out. For added effect he tried to make his eyes as vacuous as possible. He would try to bark but that would just look stupid. He briefly thought about humping her leg but he didn't think his chances of survival would be very good. Right now his chances of making it out of this room with certain appendages attached was looking quite grim.  
  
Shampoo pulled her bonbori out of... somewhere.  
  
"Shampoo thinking you has too too much energy. Shampoo thinking she break legs then maybe not move so fast."  
  
While she was talking Ranma was tensing. He knew he had only one shot at this. When she finished talking she spread her legs taking a horse stance. Ranma saw his chance and bolted right through her legs and hopefully to freedom. He misjudged the distance between his back and her crotch. He ended dragging his coarse fur through her crotch. Of course the forgot that on the other side of Shampoo was the door. He used Shampoo's distraction and used his claws and ripped the door open as she was turning around. She took a quick swipe at his backside and barely clipped him.  
  
Of course a nick from 25 kilo steel balls is enough momentum to throw off the balance of a 75 kilo cat that was already off balance. The end result was that he went careening headfirst into the far wall. The impact wasn't enough to knock him out but it was enough to stun him for a couple of seconds. To a highly trained Amazon a couple of seconds was all that she needed.  
  
Ranma didn't even bother fighting back because he knew his damage reduction he could soak up some of her hits and his regeneration would have him healed by morning if not sooner. Another reason was that he felt that he deserved this. Of course that still left the fact that it still hurt like a sonofabitch.  
  
Eventually she stopped. In actuality it was only a thirty second thrashing that didn't leave Ranma nearly as hurt as he expected. In fact if he didn't know better he would have guessed that she knew exactly where to inflict the most pain for the least damage. Thinking of Mousse and his masochistic tendencies a sadist like Shampoo would be a godsend for him. Too bad he was a stupid moron or they would be perfect for each other.  
  
By the time she'd dragged his carcass upstairs he was mostly healed. She lay down on her futon and curled up beside him. He licked her face to say that he was sorry for spraying her with water. She responded by putting him in a headlock.  
  
"You no eat Shampoo." She said while giving his head a little twist for emphasis.  
  
Ranma nodded as much as he could. She let him go and he gasped for breath. He silently wondered if that Ukyo girl was interested in a trained cheetah waiter. She probably wouldn't be such a slaved river and she couldn't do half the damage Shampoo could with that big spatula of hers.  
  
Authors notes.  
  
I'm really really sorry this took so long to get out. We have been getting so many calls here lately that I have had zero time to write. I'm currently working on Fast tracks and another episode of Lunocracy. Lunocracy is one of my side projects so donn't expect to see too many updates for it as I just use it to clear writers block.  
  
In reference to the Kasumi being bitten by cats all the time, yes that is ripped off Azumanga Daioh. If you haven't seen it yet download it, rent it, just watch it. It's hilariously funny. 


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: If you actually think these are mine I've got a bridge to sell you.  
  
Chapter 6: History Past  
  
The sunlight was softly filtering through the curtains in a small room in a cottage in the woods. There were birds and other assorted wildlife scampering around somewhere outside the window. A soft breeze was slowly blowing the curtains making them move back and forth like vertical waves on an ocean.  
  
A six year old Ranma slowly woke up in a soft bed. His skin was pale and waxy. His normally cobalt blue eyes lacked their normal luster. In fact if one looked closely they would see a bit of green starting to poke through. His black hair looked as if somebody had poured bleach on it and missed some spots in the process.  
  
He tried sitting up but immediately thought better of it as his head started swimming. He closed his eyes and eventually he regained his equilibrium. His eyes were still closed when he heard the door to his room open then close. It There was dead silence until he felt a hand on his shoulder and a soothing voice.  
  
He opened his eyes and looked at the woman that was by the bed. To his young eyes she looked to be well over three hundred years old. Her skin was wrinkly and looked like tanned leather. Her hands were bony and withered. She only stood maybe four feet tall but still she was taller than he was. Her blond hair had bits of grey in it making it look like silver and gold silk mixed together with black coal dots. It was her eyes however that really scarred scared him. They were green which wasn't too unusual but the fact that they were much older than anybody's had a right to be.  
  
"Don't try to sit up just yet. You've had a nasty fever for the last few days and your body is going to be extremely weak." She held out a glass with some red fluid in it. "Drink this, it should help somewhat."  
  
"What is it?" Ranma asked, his voice sounding like the frog had died and its ghost was now inhabiting his vocal cords.  
  
"It's a magic potion." She winked at him.  
  
"Magic?" He croaked.  
  
"Yes. This will make you feel better." She said as she helped him to a sitting position and then held the glass as he drank.  
  
Gain 4 HP.  
  
When he had finished the entire glass he was amazed that he did feel better. His skin had gotten its colour back and no longer looked waxy. His hair still looked like it had been badly bleached but now it didn't look so lifeless. His eyes were still a mix of green and blue but now it was more pronounced. The most noticeable thing though, to him at least, was that he didn't feel dizzy anymore.  
  
"Thanks grandma I feel better now."  
  
"That's good. You've been sick for a month now and I had almost lost hope that you would wake up at all." She looked down at his little face. "Now I'm not really your grandmother I just found you wandering in the woods and brought you home. Can you tell me your name little one so that we can go find your parents, I'm sure that they must be worried about you." Of course she already knew his answer before he even spoke. She had to suppress all of his memories from before or else he would go insane. The only things that he would remember are the basics of language and being potty trained (she hoped he was potty trained or else this could get messy).  
  
He thought long and hard, his little mind racing to find a scrap of an answer. Eventually he turned his eyes to the old woman. There were crystal tears threatening to spill down his angelic cheeks.  
  
"I can't remember. I don't remember anything." Crystal waterfalls. "Who am I? Where did I come from? I want my mommy!" He started crying.  
  
She was by his side in a second. She pulled him into a hug and started whispering comforting words in his ear while rubbing his back. Eventually he calmed down enough to look at her. She knew she had to give him something or else he was going to fall into a pit of despair.  
  
"Well you were wearing clothing when I found you." She paused to make sure he was listening. "Your underwear had a name written on it. I'm not sure if it's your name or not." He was listening with rapt attention now. "It was Ranma."  
  
"Ranma." He parroted back.  
  
"Yes does that ring any bells?" She knew it wouldn't. Her spells were too good to allow any of his memories through.  
  
"No." He said back in a small voice.  
  
"Well until you get your memories back my name is Natalie Shinkara but you'll just have to call me grandmother." She smiled down at him. He would be such a good student.  
  
It was a lucky thing that he had undergone the change already when he was unconscious. She would have hated to try and explain why his hair and eyes suddenly changed colour. Now came the hard part of trying to teach him how to control the change without losing control and trying to kill everything in sitesight.  
  
"You should rest now." She said while pushing him back down. "I'll bring you something to eat and we'll talk more then. I have a lot I need to teach you."  
  
She got off the bed and went over to the door. Ranma was just looking at her from underneath the covers. There was no way he was going to go to sleep now that he had so much energy. He wanted to get out of bed and go outside and try to figure out who he was. This strange woman was trying to keep him from his parents. He had to find them! It was then that an important fact hit him. He didn't know what his parents looked like. He didn't know their names. Hell, he didn't know his own name or, how was he going to find his parents if he didn't have a clue where to start looking. A good alternative was to sit in the bed and cry for a while. That sounded like a good plan.  
  
He was still crying when Natalie came in carrying a tray with some food on it. She took one look at him and immediately rushed to his side. She put the tray down on the floor and immediately enveloped him in a hug. He cried for a good long while before he eventually ran out of tears. Her dress was soaked through but she forced herself to focus on Ranma for now.  
  
"When I found you..." She started unsure of whether she should tell him this or not. "You were beaten severely and had cuts all over your body." She paused to look him in they eye. "I wasn't sure if you'd make it or not. All of my potions and spells didn't seem to have any effect."  
  
"But I'm all right now!" He protested then in a weaker voice he said. "I just can't remember anything."  
  
"You can make new memories but if you had died that would have been it no more you." Well that wasn't exactly true she still knew a couple of high level clerics in the world that could cast true resurrection, however it would be bloody expensive.  
  
"I guess." He looked up at her. "Grandma, I'm hungry." He said.  
  
Natalie just started chuckling as she reached down and picked up the tray. The Saotome stomach strikes again.  
  
The tray only had a pile of half cooked meat slices and some reddish liquid in a glass. Since he didn't have any of his higher memories he didn't know what a normal meal consisted of so he just started shoveling it in pausing only to chew a bit so he didn't choke on it. Even though it was barely cooked it tasted good. The liquid in the glass tasted like that 'potion' from before.  
  
When he was finished he felt a lot better.  
  
6 HP  
  
"I feel great grandma." He said while jumping out of the bed.  
  
Of course he was still naked, but for little kids naked is just fine.  
  
"Ok, ok, we need to get you some clothes." She said as she moved over to the closet. "The clothes you were wearing when I found you were pretty much destroyed. I got you some new clothes. I'll admit it isn't much but we can get some more together later." She said while pulling out an outfit.  
  
There was a plain red t-shirt, some black corduroy pants, a pair of white tube socks and some underwear. She walked over to where he was standing.  
  
"Now watch carefully I'm going to show you how to dress yourself." She said as she bent over. "Ok, raise your right leg."  
  
He did so and she put his leg through the right hole in the underwear. She repeated her instructions for his left leg and then had him pull it up. His socks were next, then the pants and finally the t-shirt. When he was done she told him to make sure that the tag always went to the back. The pants and shirt were too big on him. Natalie just chuckled and said that he'd grow into them.  
  
The next few weeks were spent with Ranma getting used to living as a person again. Natalie taught him how to use the outhouse, the water pump, and most importantly the rules that people lived by.... like wearing clothes when you went outside.  
  
It was during the third week that Natalie started getting nervous. She would start talking about something that he couldn't understand then peter off. This was really starting to annoy him.  
  
One day she led him out to a stone structure deep in the woods. Being a young boy he was fascinated by the runes on the walls and the claw marks on the floor that looked like several wild animals had been held here.  
  
"I've been putting this off for quite some time now." She looked at the sky and saw that the sun had already set for the day. She didn't have much time left.  
  
"For the longest of times the world was populated with many different kinds of intelligent beings. Dwarves, elves, humans, dragons, and lycanthropes. All of these inhabited the earth at one point." She looked down as if remembering something painful. "Over time through wars and disease etc the other races died off." She paused for quite some time. "Some of the races survived however. I am part of one of those races." She said as she shifted to her hybrid form.  
  
She didn't get any bigger than she was normally, it's just that her ears shifted to the top of her head like cats ears. Her fingers elongated and her fingernails became like claws. Yellow fur sprouted all along her back and white fur along her front. Her face was a combination of yellow fur with black slashes horizontally above and below her eyes. Finally Ranma noticed the tail that was peaking peeking out from under her dress.  
  
"I am a were cheetah and until I found you I thought I was the last of my kind."  
  
It was about this time that Ranma was calming down. Watching the old woman change into something else was scary. Then her words hit him.  
  
"What do you mean until you found me?"  
  
"Didn't you ever wonder why our hair is the same colour with the dark spots in it?"  
  
"No."  
  
Natalie shook her head. That was one of the things that she noted to herself that she'd have to teach him. Curiosity didn't always kill the cat.  
  
"The reason is that you are also a were cheetah. I was so very happy when I found you as I was no longer the last of my kind."  
  
"Wait. I'm a cat?" Ranma said scrunching his face up in confusion.  
  
Natalie laughed at this.  
  
"Sort of you are both a cat and a human yet neither at the same time."  
  
"How can I be both?" Ranma was really confused now.  
  
"You'll understand in a few minutes." Natalie said as she looked at the rising moon.  
  
"For three days every lunar cycle our kind reverts to our beast form, it is part of our renewal and it helps us live much longer than normal humans however this renewal has a price on it." She looked at him. "Normally we would be reduced to nothing more than mindless animals, killing machines, with no other purpose than killing everything in sight." She paused gauging his reaction. He seemed scared enough. "However we can learn how to control these bestial urges so that you will never kill anything unless you really want to."  
  
She swept her hand around indicating the structure that they were in.  
  
"Long ago this was our clan's safe zone. Here we trained our young to control their shape without losing control. I will not lie to you it is a difficult process and may take some time before you learn but I will be here to help you." She said.  
  
"I'm not scared of anything! I'll have this down in a week, tops." Ranma said puffing out his chest  
  
Natalie looked up at the rising moon.  
  
"I'm afraid that it might take a little longer than that." She said as she pulled a hidden lever in the wall.  
  
The doors to the building slammed shut plunging the room into darkness for a few seconds. Natalie mumbled a few words and the stones started glowing a faint orange.  
  
"What... what's happening?" Ranma was not scared just edgy.  
  
"It's a minor cube of force. It's so you don't damage the walls too much. This first time you are going to be wild. Don't worry just let yourself go. I'll catch you when you fall."  
  
Ranma was tempted to ask her what she meant by that when he saw the full moon rising above the wall. He was so transfixed by that wonderful blue grey orb in the sky that he never noticed the blood rushing to his ears, his heart hammering away in his chest or his lungs gulping in large quantities of air.  
  
The change happened quite quickly. One moment he was a little boy the next he was a cheetah cub. When asked by his grandmother at a later time he never could quite remember when his humanity left him. All he could remember was staring at the moon and then nothing till he woke up in his bed three days later.  
  
She told him that now that he'd experienced the change he'd be able to control it. For the next three weeks every day they went into the chamber and she would get him to practice changing back and forth trying to keep from losing himself. It took him two months before he could control the change perfectly and another two before he could keep his mind during the full moon.  
  
After he'd gotten the hang of transforming between his three forms Natalie got down to the task of teaching him magic. It was fairly slow going as he seemed to just not get it. There were times when she was tempted to pull her hair out at the frustration. Depending on what form she was in at the time that was a lot of hair.  
  
She finally managed to teach him about four zero circle spells and three first circle. One of the ones that she made sure he knew pat was a basic healing spell. Even though healing was normally a domain of clerics over time arcane spell casters came up with a basic spell that would heal the body. It was necessary as the number of clerics that could cast spells dwindled and healing either had to be done naturally or in severe cases you died. Unfortunately there were great limitations on arcane healing and nobody could ever come up with any arcane versions of the greater healing spells that clerics could wield.  
  
By the time Ranma was seven and a half he was wanting to learn something other than wizardry. He made the argument that he just wanted to broaden his skills. Natalie just guessed that he just wanted to get out of his lessons. Before she agreed to take him to meet the other masters that she knew she made him promise that he would spend his free time learning at least another three spells from first circle and two from second. As she thought it was a tough battle but one she prevailed in.  
  
One teleport later and they were deep inside an old dwarven mine. Time had ravaged the place to the point where it looked like a natural cave except for where they were now.  
  
"Grandma what's that?" Asked little Ranma.  
  
"That my dear is a permanent gate to the plains." She said as she started tracing out the runes that would activate the gate to a certain plain.  
  
"Remember my story about the other races and how they mostly died out?" Seeing him nod she continued. "Well not all of the races were stupid enough to stick around and just die off. The remaining races banded together to create this gate so that they could escape to a different world. I have some friends on the other side that I haven't seen in a while. A couple of them even owe me some favors and I'd like to collect before they expire."  
  
Ranma just stood there listening to her speak. He couldn't understand everything she was saying but it meant new training so he was happy. Once Natalie finished tracing the appropriate runes she spoke something in a strange flitting language and the gate glowed to life. Little Ranma was astounded by the colour swirl that appeared between the stones.  
  
They each grabbed their bags and stepped through the portal. Once they were on the other side Ranma was amazed at the city that spread out before him.  
  
Most of the buildings looked to be made of white marble in what looked like a cross between greco roman style and renaissance Europe. Of course he didn't know this. A few of the buildings looked like they were made out of living trees that somehow were made to grow together to form a shelter. Looking around some more he saw parks with fountains and lots of greenery. Flowing water seemed to be a theme as there were streams everywhere.  
  
Then there were the people. Well they weren't exactly people as in humans. Everybody had long pointy ears and high cheekbones. They looked like this guy that he'd seen on TV once.  
  
To make a long long story short (b/c this is just a flashback episode) they met up with Soveliss, Mylanee, Niandra, and Bob; Natalies friends. Soveliss was a high level monk who taught Ranma martial arts and weapons. Niandra was a ranger who taught him about how to survive in the wild, tracking, and the bow. Bob was a bard who taught him how to perform and how to play the guitar.  
  
Mylanee was a high level wizardess who was... well she was different. Ranma could actually count the number of insanities that she had but he had to use all of his fingers and toes and one extra appendage. She had died and been resurrected so many times in her long life that she had acquired a frequent diers card. He guessed being eaten by a giant snake then crapped out and then being brought back would give anybody a fear of snakes. Mylanee took that normal fear to a new level. No garter snake or greater would get away from her. That brought up another one of her quirks.  
  
Mylanee was a pyro.  
  
Unlike his grandmother who preferred to teach him useful spells like alarm and comprehend magic Mylanee preferred to use force when dealing with a problem. Once when they were out on a field trip they came upon a nest of giant vipers.  
  
Meteor swarm is such a cool spell for a young and impressionable youth.  
  
Sufficed to say Ranma managed to learn four new first level spells (magic missile, burning hands, mend, and magic weapon) three second level spells (melf's acid arrow, flaming sphere, and greater repairing) and one third level spell (fireball... umm duh.)  
  
By the time they left the elves six years had passed. As they were saying goodbye Natalie lingered a little longer than Ranma thought was necessary but he had learned enough manners to let her have her time. Besides a couple of the young elven maidens had come to see him off personally. Once he'd hit puberty a lot of things happened like girls being not so icky anymore. When it came to hot looking girls beauty thy name is elven.  
  
Eventually they had to leave. Once they were back Natalie teleported them back to their house. The spells she had set up to keep it clean and repaired were still in good shape so everything was still in the same condition as when they left.  
  
They stayed in the cottage for about six months before Natalie decided to take him around to the strange spots and show him what little magic was left in the world. They also stopped by several masters so that he could learn some more martial arts. Along the way he managed to learn a couple more first, second, third and a fourth level spell. He also gleaned a smattering more of alchemy.  
  
When he was about fifteen Natalie suddenly said that they had to go home right away. He of course protested because he was in the middle of studying Martial arts construction but she was adamant. The master of course let him go with the promise that he could return at any time to complete his study.  
  
Six months later Natalie died of complications due to old age.  
  
Authors notes:  
  
Umm I guess sorry isn't going to cut it. Don't worry I always finish writing what I start. (except when I lose the idea I had. damn dragons bane)  
  
I guess next up will be Fast Tracks or I may start a new story of something else. (too many ideas not enough time to write them all.)  
  
Again many thanks go out to my prereaders: Axekeeper, Lord Raa, and Chi Vayne 


End file.
